The social network Bluesky experienced significant service interruptions beginning in the early hours of Thursday, 1 January 2026, with its Chief Operating Officer Rose Wang attributing the problems to a denial-of-service attack. The platform's status page indicated issues started around 2:42 a.m. Eastern Time, with users across the globe reporting slow loading times and frequent error messages when attempting to access the site or mobile application.
As of Thursday afternoon, service remained unstable. The Bluesky app and website load sporadically, often displaying error notifications. A common message encountered by users states, “This feed is currently receiving high traffic and is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later. Message from server: Rate Limit Exceeded.” This has affected popular curated feeds such as 'Discover' and the official 'Bluesky Team' feed, though some users report their personal timelines remain accessible at times.
Technical Team Acknowledges Severe Strain
Bluesky protocol engineer Bryan Newbold commented on the situation at approximately 3:46 a.m. ET, stating, “oof, our services are getting pretty hard tonight.” The company has not provided an official detailed explanation for the ongoing slowdown or offered a public estimated time for a full resolution. Bluesky has also not responded to media requests for comment regarding the incident.
Despite the widespread issues on the main Bluesky network, the underlying AT Protocol that powers the decentralised social network appears resilient. Other independent communities and servers operating on the same open-source protocol have reportedly continued to function without major disruption during this period.
Context and Broader Impact
Denial-of-service (DoS) attacks aim to overwhelm a website or online service with a flood of internet traffic, rendering it inaccessible to legitimate users. For a platform like Bluesky, which positions itself as a decentralised alternative to mainstream social media, such extended downtime tests user patience and platform reliability.
The outage highlights the operational challenges faced by emerging social networks, even those built on decentralised architectures designed for greater stability and user control. The incident occurs as Bluesky has been working to grow its user base and establish itself in a competitive market.