Bluesky is adding account verification in the form of an “easily recognizable blue check.” But when it comes to individual users, the privilege has to be earned, not requested or paid for. “Bluesky will proactively verify authentic and notable accounts and display a blue check next to their names,” the Jack Dorsey-founded microblogging social platform announced. Select independent organizations are able to “verify accounts directly” using Trusted Verifiers, but Bluesky will review those as well. Since 2023, the company has allowed domain names to be registered as Bluesky account handles, but users indicated “a larger visual signal would be useful.”

Bluesky was incubated in 2019 as part of Twitter, where Dorsey then worked. It launched on its own in 2021.

Digital Trends reports that simply allowing people to use registered domain names as their Bluesky monikers “didn’t always work,” resulting by late 2024 in the company “having to grapple with the menace of impersonation and handle-squatting.”

The policy was subsequently tightened and development began for implementation of a more reliable verification system.

More than 270,000 accounts have linked their Bluesky username to their websites since that policy was implemented, the company explains in a blog post that emphasizes “domain handles will continue to be an important part of verification on Bluesky.”

“For now, Bluesky will cherry-pick important accounts that will get a blue checkmark appearing before their user name,” and as the feature stabilizes, it will “launch a request form for notable and authentic accounts interested in becoming verified or becoming Trusted Verifiers,” Digital Trends writes.

“Setting up a domain and connecting it to your Bluesky account is not a trivial matter,” notes TechRadar. “This new feature significantly simplifies the process.”

“There are now three levels of identity on the platform: the basic Bluesky account, a Trusted Verifier, and a Verified Account,” TechRadar says, adding that “the Trusted Verifier is interesting because it’s a verified account that, with Bluesky’s review, can verify other accounts.” For example, The New York Times Bluesky account can verify the individual accounts of its journalists.

“Like Twitter’s original blue check (RIP), Bluesky’s blue check will verify that notable accounts are legitimate, making it easy for users to trust that an account’s posts are real,” reports TechCrunch, referring to the move as of April 20, 2023 to remove legacy verified blue checkmarks from accounts that did not subscribe to a paid membership tier just prior to officially relaunching as X in July 2023.