Bluesky, the social network often presented as a decentralized alternative to mainstream platforms, hit a significant snag on Thursday, going dark for many users for roughly an hour, though some user-aggregation sites noted disruptions closer to two hours. For those affected, attempts to load feeds on desktop or mobile resulted in perpetual spinning indicators, even if login remained possible. The company attributed the outage to substantial networking failures within its own cluster of Personal Data Servers (PDS), reigniting conversations about the practical realities of its distributed architecture.
Outage Details and PDS Failure
The disruption began Thursday evening, with Bluesky’s official status page acknowledging “major PDS networking problems” around 6:55 PM Eastern Time and confirming an investigation into a “major outage with Bluesky hosted PDS instances.” Access remained problematic until Bluesky identified a likely cause and deployed a fix across its server fleet.
CTO Paul Frazee confirmed the service was operational again via a post at 7:54 PM ET: “Okay we are back. Very sorry for the outage everyone. We’re still clearing out the situation. Will keep you updated”. While the company worked to restore access, users on rival decentralized networks like Mastodon reportedly took the opportunity to critique Bluesky’s model, highlighting the incident as evidence of its dependencies.
Central Failure Point Exposed
Understanding Bluesky’s architecture clarifies how this happened. Built on the Authenticated Transfer (AT) Protocol developed since 2019, the system uses PDS nodes (Personal Data Servers, which store individual user account data), Relays (servers that gather and distribute this data across the network), and AppViews (which render the user interface).
Critically, while anyone can run their own PDS for greater control, but doing so requires technical effort and resources. As a result, the vast majority access Bluesky through the official app, which connects directly to the PDS infrastructure managed by Bluesky PBC itself.
During Thursday’s outage, this central PDS fleet failed widely. According to technical analyses by outlets like TechCrunch and user reports, the network’s main Relay component continued functioning, and importantly, users operating their own independent PDS instances experienced no disruption.
The incident effectively demonstrated that while the AT Protocol allows for decentralization, the current user experience for most is tied to the stability of Bluesky’s own servers. This mirrors past challenges; in November 2024, rapid user growth strained Bluesky’s systems, causing slowdowns and errors, compounded initially by an unrelated fiber cut.
The Path to Distributed Social Media
Bluesky originated as a Twitter side project under founder Jack Dorsey, aiming to explore decentralized social media structures. It spun off into an independent public benefit corporation in 2021.
The AT Protocol it developed was intended to offer users more autonomy over their data compared to traditional platforms. Features like custom domain handles and user-defined content feeds exemplify this approach. The platform has also benefited from users seeking alternatives to X (formerly Twitter) following policy changes and after X faced suspension in Brazil, which boosted Bluesky’s user numbers substantially.
The platform has continued adding capabilities, expanding video uploads from 60 seconds (introduced September 2024) to three minutes in March 2025. However, Thursday’s PDS troubles serve as a reminder that building and scaling a truly resilient, distributed network involves overcoming significant operational hurdles.
While independent relays can exist, a technical overview from July 2024 shared by a Bluesky engineer noted the substantial cost (~$150/month for adequate hardware then) and complexity involved in running a full-network relay, explaining why many services rely on Bluesky’s central relay infrastructure—similar to the PDS dependency highlighted by this outage.
