Bluesky Blocks Link to Archive of 41,000 DHS Employees as "Malicious"

According to reports, the archive was published by DDoSecrets and contains names, email addresses, phone numbers, and internal group affiliations for roughly 41,000 DHS employees and contractors. WIRED’s investigation says some entries include references related to surveillance and infiltration operations, as well as details about organizational structure and technical access.

When users attempt to open the link to the archive on Bluesky, they are redirected to a "Blocked Link" page and the URL is shown as "malicious." Bluesky cited the unauthorized sharing of individuals’ contact information as a violation of its community guidelines, and explained that it chose to block the link site-wide rather than remove individual posts in order to avoid restricting reporting, commentary, and other public debate.

The company has not said whether the block was applied automatically or whether it was prompted by a government request. DDoSecrets’ homepage itself still displays normally on Bluesky, and some third-party apps allow the link to be opened without warnings. Competing platforms have taken different approaches; there are reports that the Grok chatbot on X is instructing users how to access the site.

Bluesky uses a decentralized protocol that lets external developers create their own apps and choose which moderation labels to apply. Its current community guidelines prohibit sharing "home addresses, personal contact information, financial or medical information, and identification documents," while also stating that "reporting of facts about government transparency and public officials" is protected. The measure taken in this case could prompt debate over how those guidelines are interpreted and applied.

This incident echoes past cases on Twitter (now X) where links to leaked documents were blocked or accounts suspended; a representative of a publishing organization said platforms sometimes yield to government pressure. The representative also expressed the view that it is not possible to completely stop the spread of factual information.