I have to give Fortnite my passport to use Bluesky
62 comments
·December 19, 2025pojntfx
Imustaskforhelp
Amazing website, I have seen this earlier and I really enjoyed it
Honestly, I'd like to chime in the fact that I always used to think that web was so just aws,google,microsoft,cloudflare hosting it and there is some truth to it but if someone feels this way, I recommend people to look at some websites like https://serverdeals.cc https://https://vpspricetracker.com/ etc and going on places like lowendtalk and even talking to some people who are vps providers and talking to them etc, it was very fascinating
Another point I'd like to chime in, being more relevant perhaps is that as I have told in other comment, bluesky itself isnt centralizing/asking for id to just use it but they are asking it for the dm functionality which is still centralized/ even unencrypted. They are working on improving it/making it decentralized but although I feel like I dont enjoy bluesky that much because of its shannon index as you showed compared to say fediverse, this message today isnt the issue
Fediverse itself doesnt know how to handle direct messages / most likely they are unencrypted too (atleast of lemmy they are that I know of)
But I am interested how the shannon index of fediverse is so low when threads app has 10s of millions of people, how does that work/not centralized too?
Also I had heard that the creator of pixelfed is working on an encrypted fediverse messaging app but I have been interested in this for so long but I am interested if you know of any such applications right now
kemotep
Threads is a one way view into the fediverse and opt in too boot. Only Threads users who turn it on are visible to the wider fediverse and many instances on Mastodon de-federate from Threads anyway.
I can follow Hank Green on Threads but the interoperability basically ends there.
josefresco
"(COLUMBUS, Ohio) — A review of 20 top pornography websites ordered by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost revealed that only one is complying with Ohio’s recently enacted age-verification law."
https://www.ohioattorneygeneral.gov/Media/News-Releases/Octo...
pirates
If those websites aren’t operating out of Ohio I don’t see why they should have to follow Ohio’s laws.
t1234s
These state required ID walls to use online services will eventually be required to access anything the internet.
t1234s
Also I think this is the reason M$ and Apple offer (or forced in the case of M$) you to use an online account to log into your local machine. I believe this will be used in the future to allow people to legally use the internet or not at all. Would a world like this mean using Linux makes you an outlaw in certain areas?
nancyminusone
Maybe this will kill IoT. Alternately, I will become a smart fridge.
01HNNWZ0MV43FF
No, corporations can always do whatever they want. And they won't allow a smart fridge to have a bank account or health care
glouwbug
Maybe not the worst idea if we're looking to claim back what's been lost to LLM bots
al_borland
I’m not sure how a surveillance state is better? That wouldn’t regain what we are losing to LLM bots, it would be yet another thing we’re losing.
Macha
Nah, the only platforms left will sell the right to post ads into your feed and sell access to the data to the LLM companies
charcircuit
Is this just clickbait or is the passport verification really done by Fortnite? The article doesn't explain it and I am very skeptical of the claim.
tomku
It's using "Fortnite" as a synecdoche for Epic Games, because "I have to give an age verification company owned by Epic Games my passport to use Bluesky" isn't quite as effective at revving the outrage engines, even if it has the benefit of being true. Personally, I don't think people who are willing to do that are showing themselves to be trustworthy but you might feel differently.
Apocryphon
It is pretty funny how Epic Games is a platform empire now such that they provide an authentication system used beyond gaming.
ZoneZealot
'Kids Web Services' is a subsidiary of Epic, the makers of Fortnite.
al_borland
It says it’s a subsidiary of Epic Games, and Epic owns Fortnite. Saying it’s Fortnite feels like a very clickbait way to frame it.
birdman3131
By a verification service owned by epic games apparently. So not fortnite but its not a super stretch.
mrgoldenbrown
The good faith interpretation is that if the fortnite division had any reason to benefit from that passport info, they would be able to get it. That's not a super stretch.
cwyers
It's as much of a stretch as describing using an Azure service as "I have to use Halo" or AWS as "I have to use Rings of Power."
umanwizard
So it's not fortnite at all. It's something owned by the same company that happens to also own fortnite. That is actually a huge stretch.
Imagine if I said "I have to pilot a 747 just to change the temperature of my house" (because Honeywell makes both passenger jet avionics and thermostats).
null
hannahstrawbrry
First paragraph- "a subsidiary of the video game company that makes Fortnite"
lowmagnet
It says so in the first paragraph that it's a subsidiary of Epic Games that does verification.
LightBug1
Google asked for my passport to pay for some ridiculous <$1 payment (I refused). So I wouldn't be at all surprised if this is was legit.
Online companies have bent over and stuck their own heads up their own asses ... and they'll call it progress, good UX and security.
Fuck em (generally speaking).
uyzstvqs
This page is blocking VPN users - https://archive.is/6AykL
TekMol
Isn't Bluesky supposed to be decentralized?
How can some party lock you out of it?
Imustaskforhelp
Well Bluesky/the protocol behind it is decentralized
but the dm (direct message) functionality itself isn't decentralized and bluesky even mentions it/shows it that its unencrypted and centralized iirc
TekMol
Hmm.. so the public channel is decentralized but the private channel is not.
There is actually a technical solution to that then. Use the public channel to send/receive private messages. Every could publish a public key. Then everyone could send private messages to everyone by encrypting them with the public key of the receiver and sending them over the public channel.
Shall we try it? My public key:
-----BEGIN PUBLIC KEY-----
MFwwDQYJKoZIhvcNAQEBBQADSwAwSAJBAKs9CbOAxSROEdm/+QGyDLdxITTq+YdbmIlOM0jemqKvLXinnBUDeDRSGXOoCnygXLFsm6R31szySqiVunasX/8CAwEAAQ==
-----END PUBLIC KEY-----
https://anycript.com/crypto/rsa
And then pasting the encrypted version into a reply to this comment :)
Imustaskforhelp
Although I enjoy the public key/private key ideas, If you wish to talk encrypted, one of the best ways to do such could be having signal if you don't mind centralization
But if you want decentralization some options i can recommend are matrix,simplex,session etc.
But to be honest, there is a good point that you raise about how to talk decentralized on bluesky
well, one of the ideas that I can think of right now, is that someone can use https://keyoxide.org/ and paste in their public key and also connect both bluesky and matrix and then have the keyoxide as part of something public like a comment
The problem in this is that it becomes tedious and does add more friction to the whole thing but definitely possible.
alwa
Paste my private keys into a form control on the web? What could go wrong?
yjftsjthsd-h
Okay, I skimmed the article and either I missed something or it's not answering the actual question in the title. I get the age verification thing, but why is "Fortnite" / Epic Games in the process for Bluesky?
frenchtoast8
> Bluesky will perform age verification through Kid Web Services (KWS), an Epic Games-owned tool
https://www.theverge.com/news/704468/bluesky-age-verificatio...
TheRealPomax
These laws were never about protecting the children, and trying to argue it's not protecting children really is just a waste of time. These laws are about knowing who wants access to what, so the government can hold that over you when they eventually decide they don't like you and need an excuse to make your life hell.
like_any_other
> That information breach happened after the UK instituted sweeping new “child safety” laws to protect the kiddos. Because collecting and leaking your identity is surely going to keep them safe, right?
We don't even have to speculate with scare quotes anymore - the UK government has admitted that the purpose was not child safety, but controlling "public discourse": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46314642
> Well, even if your data is safeguarded properly
Not very reassuring if it's the government itself you fear.
mystraline
I'm in another state with similar idiotic "save the children" laws.
Thankfully, there are VPNs that come out from all sorts of 'better' countries with less bad online laws. I'll use them.
And I'll move VPNs as needed. Including the residential cloaked VPNs.
malshe
The original title is "Why I have to give Fortnite my passport to use Bluesky". HN automatically removed "Why" from the title.
throwaway290
this article is a good example of why "why" should be removed
richstokes
Why?
happytoexplain
Can you explain?
mmastrac
"Why" is redundant. If the article is stating premise "X" and it's on the front page (assuming it's not newsworthy enough that "X" is novel and worth discussion), it's obviously going to explain "Why X" and "X" is sufficient.
null
Noaidi
Honestly, I do not care about all of this anymore. We do not need social media. We just don't. If you want to use it for business then yes, you should need to present an ID.
"Age verification laws are as ineffective", yes. But this is even true for buying alcohol, but we still have the laws because they help. The more kids are off social media the better.
"as they are dangerous", this is laughable.
The example: "16-year-old in Texas, for example, could get pregnant and be denied abortion access—as well as information online about obtaining an abortion through other means, and even parenting the children they’re forced to have."
Hey, abortions for 16 years olds are illegal in Texas as are nearly all abortions. Yeah, it is a dumb law, but it is the law. So you are advocating for a child to break the law putting them at even more of a risk! You may disagree with the law, but if that is the case, work to change it.
I had many queer friends growing up in the 80's. They all talked to each other in real life. They had real solidarity in both the gay and straight community. I mean Stonewall happened in real life, not online. Maybe the whole online thing is meant to curtail real action. We do not need online.
I agree the implementation is faulty.
But you know how I know most people do not care about "the harm'? Because I am homeless with a serious mental illness and no one cares. Is there one person here who will rent me a room in their huge house for $600 a month so I do not have to stress living in my van anymore?
throawayonthe
> So you are advocating for a child to break the law putting them at even more of a risk!
untrue in the general case?
> We do not need online.
agreed; doesn't really change the present issues
I ran across "Are We Decentralized Yet" recently, which shows how decentralized services are in practice: https://arewedecentralizedyet.online/
A lot of people try and deflect from Bluesky's governance issues by pointing at the fact that you _could_, in theory, self-host it or use another instance to bypass it. In practice though, that's something almost nobody does (unlike with the fediverse), which allows the company behind it to make decisions like this for effectively everyone with no checks whatsoever.