Bluesky finally found in Belgium

X-rival Bluesky has set up its EU headquarters in Belgium, putting the country’s telecom regulator in charge of the platform’s compliance with the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), the company said on its website.

Last November, the Commission said it is trying to locate where in Europe the US social media platform set up shop, amid a steep rise in user numbers, by asking all 27 national DSA regulators for more information.

All platforms will need to register their EU headquarters to comply with the DSA. Only the largest platforms – Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs) – with 45 million users per month in the EU, have to abide by the strictest rules, including transparency reports and risk assessments.

DSA compliance of smaller companies, such as Bluesky, will be guarded by national regulators. 

The company, which was founded as a research initiative as part of Twitter (now X) in 2019, is not close to reaching a VLOP status, late last year it said it has just some 20 million users globally, with audiences mostly in the US, Brazil and Japan.

The platform was an invite-only app until February of last year, but millions of users have joined it in the wake of the US presidential election, mostly steering away from X, owned by billionaire Elon Musk.

The Belgian Institute of Post and Telecommunications (BIPT) is also overseeing the compliance of messaging app Telegram, which also set up its EU headquarters in the country.

The Commission has designed 25 companies as VLOPs, for passing the threshold of 45 million users per month. They include Facebook, Amazon, Temu and Shein.