Bluesky COO Rose Wang stated that if countries impose overly stringent compliance requirements when introducing restrictions on youth use of social media, it could make it more difficult for small and medium-sized platforms to enter the market, ultimately further strengthening the dominance of large technology companies in the industry.

In an interview with CNBC during SXSW in London, she said Bluesky is not against regulation and supports the protection of minors, but the problem lies in who bears the cost of regulation. She stated that the compliance teams of large platforms may already be far larger than the overall teams of smaller platforms, leaving little room for newcomers to build new products and communities.

Regulatory costs may raise the bar.

Wang stated that many large social media platforms currently prioritize commercial interests, which is a key reason why governments worldwide are accelerating regulatory intervention. However, she also believes that if the regulatory framework is designed primarily based on the resource capabilities of leading platforms, the result may not be improved, but rather higher barriers to entry.

She said that regulation needs to go hand in hand with innovation, and regulatory authorities should also preserve more communication channels for small and medium-sized platforms and small businesses, rather than making all companies bear the same set of high-cost requirements.

Australia has already implemented it.

Australia previously set a significant precedent by imposing social media restrictions on minors. Under local rules, platforms that fail to take "reasonable measures" to comply with these requirements could face fines of up to AU$49.5 million.

Public information shows that Bluesky has also introduced age verification measures to prevent users under the age of 16 from using its platform. Following Australia's lead in implementing similar policies, countries such as the UK, Spain, France, and Austria are also pushing for similar legislation. In the US, such restrictions are more likely to appear first in the form of state-level legislation.

Bluesky users are still far fewer than X

Bluesky was initially launched internally at Twitter in 2019, later spun off into an independent operation in 2021, and has since been gradually seen as one of the competitors to X. The platform was once backed by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey.

As of March this year, Bluesky had approximately 43 million users. In comparison, X's estimated user base is around 450 million. Wang's core concern is that if only a few large platforms can afford the regulatory costs in the future, market competition and product diversity could shrink further.