GoKawiilGovernment action to ban social media platforms risks strengthening Big Tech's grip on the industry further, limiting access for smaller players, an exec at BlueSky has warned.
Rose Wang, Bluesky's chief operating officer, told CNBC on the sidelines of SXSW in London on Wednesday that the smaller open-source platform isn't opposed to regulation but that smaller players in the industry should be protected.
"I support the protection and the safety of youth, the question that we have then is at what cost, because essentially what I'm scared of is in the long term, we're headed to a world where there's about three to five platforms, and extreme heavy regulation of those platforms, and basically the whole compliance teams of these platforms are 10 times the size of our entire team," Wang said.
"So, basically, we're living in a world where it's almost impossible for smaller entrants to come in and build healthier spaces," she added.
The open-source platform was created within X, formerly known as Twitter, in 2019 and endorsed by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey. Bluesky spun off in 2021 and soon after gained prominence as a rival to the Elon Musk-owned platform. It's since grown to 43 million users as of March, which is still only around 10% of X's estimated 450 million users.
Bluesky has struggled to maintain popularity, and by the end of October last year, it had reportedly seen a 40% drop in daily mobile active users over the past 12 months. Wang said the company has around 40 employees.