Decentralized social network Mastodon says it has no way to comply with Mississippi’s new age verification law, the same legislation that led rival Bluesky to block users in the state.
In a statement shared with TechCrunch, the nonprofit Mastodon gGmbH explained that because it doesn’t track users, it cannot enforce mandatory age checks. It also rejected IP-based blocking, arguing that it would unfairly impact people traveling through the state.
The clarification followed a public exchange between Mastodon founder Eugen Rochko and Bluesky board member Mike Masnick earlier this week. Rochko argued that “nobody can decide for the fediverse to block Mississippi,” highlighting the network’s decentralized structure. Masnick countered that large Mastodon servers like mastodon.social could still face fines of up to $10,000 per user under the law.
Mastodon noted that while its servers specify a minimum age of 16, the platform “does not have the means to apply age verification.” A July 2025 software update (Mastodon 4.4) added options for server admins to set age restrictions at sign-up, but the data isn’t stored, leaving compliance decisions to individual operators.
The nonprofit also said it cannot provide “direct or operational assistance” to server administrators but encouraged them to use resources like the IFTAS trust and safety library and to follow the laws in their respective jurisdictions.
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“One of the reasons Mastodon was founded was to allow different jurisdictions to have social media that is independent of the U.S.,” the group said. “People are free to choose to have their account on a Mastodon server whose policies meet their needs.”
