Bluesky is blocking users from opening links to a newly leaked archive of records on more than 41,000 Department of Homeland Security employees and contractors, and labels the pages “malicious.”
The files include people’s email addresses and phone numbers, “shared without their authorization,” Bluesky tells WIRED, in violation of its community guidelines. The company says it chose to block the links, rather than remove individual posts, “to avoid limiting public discussion or restricting broader access to reporting and commentary.”
The DHS records, published Wednesday by the transparency nonprofit Distributed Denial of Secrets, list employees' and contractors’ names, contact information, and membership in internal groups, tied in some cases to surveillance and undercover operations. A WIRED investigation found that the files lay out in detail how DHS is organized, from senior leadership to individual immigration agents, and in some cases appear to show who has access to certain technologies.
Users who try to open the archive through Bluesky’s website or app land on a page labeled "Blocked Link," which says the URL has been identified as “malicious” and blocked for their safety. Bluesky did not respond to questions about whether the block was imposed automatically or whether any government agency had asked the company to restrict access to the data.
The DDoSecrets homepage loads normally from Bluesky. At least one third-party app, Klearsky, opens links to the DHS archive with no warning.
Bluesky promotes a decentralized approach to content moderation that lets users pick independent services that label or filter posts.
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