Yes, it is specific to Bluesky. It is not dependent on the official app, though: Both the app and the website are subject to this kind of censorship.
There seem to be loopholes [1] through some third-party apps, but that does not change much about the overall problem. Defaults matter a lot.
I have a hard time understanding why the Bluesky authors came up with an idea like that in the first place. Not to mention actually creating it. The internet (or social media) probably does not benefit from even more granular censorship tools for governments all over the world.
I'm not sure if this is some kind of tactic, but both of these claims seem trivially wrong.
Bluesky is available in both main app stores and on the web. There is no merit in denying this. There are often differences in content restrictions between what app stores enforce and what service providers enable, but one cannot really say, "Just don't use the app," if by "app" they mean every common way of accessing the service.
Also, I think the protocol does not matter much if the user experience of almost every user is entirely controlled by a single provider. In such a case, the protocol might as well be entirely absent.
It is difficult to tell whether there is some substance here, since you do not explain (or source) anything.
There seem to be loopholes [1] through some third-party apps, but that does not change much about the overall problem. Defaults matter a lot.
I have a hard time understanding why the Bluesky authors came up with an idea like that in the first place. Not to mention actually creating it. The internet (or social media) probably does not benefit from even more granular censorship tools for governments all over the world.
[1] https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/23/government-censorship-come...