This has absolutely nothing to do with enshittification. Bluesky doesn't need that redirect to know what you're clicking on. You're already on their platform, they can already track every single click that you do while on Bluesky including navigating to outbound links. I'm a bit shocked that nobody here is calling that out to be honest

They already know your IP address, you're using their website/app.

It's either to track outbound clicks (And potentially block them if they're harmful, YouTube and Steam do that), or a much more unlikely option is to hide the referrer from the target site (Since browsers have better ways to handle that now, but old ones don't)

Never follow social media to a second location.

There is a legitimate reason for this: it’s the only way to provide content creators with evidence of how many people actually clicked on the link.

The downside is that there is so many ways that a feature like this can be abused by BlueSky in ways that can hurt users.

Anything under direct corporate control will enshittify. It has nothing to do with mission, values, direction, purpose, or any other bullshit in the charter of a service. If it is controlled by an entity with shareholders turning a profit, it will enshittify, because those shareholders will demand ever increasing profit for their investments. It is a one-way process.

Oh, there is so much more you can do with this "functionality". Welp, anyone who trusts bluesky even an inch better prepare to be deeply disappointed.

As predicted.... And people piled on me here when I question why they were falling head over heels over bluesky when it was yet another techo bro platform

This is not enshittification. Many other knowledgeable users who actually know what they're talking about have explained why.

Anybody know what the real reason for this is?

All websites can track how often a link is clicked, and what the link is, and who clicked it (especially if you have an account).

Even if it didn't go to bluesky.app first before the actual link, clicks on it can still be made to be tracked. It's trivial to do it much more discreetly.

It is definitely tracked, but I would guess that turning it into a bluesky link has other uses, not all nefarious, such as: link previews, caching, dealing with dead links.

How is this enshittification? As far as an end user is aware nothing has changed right?

I use an app called URLcheck that I've installed via F-Droid. Although it doesn't appear to give me the ability to skip the bluesky redirect action but at least I know it's there I guess.

Eh. Doesn't seem too bad, but then again, I haven't made an account there because of it not really being decentralized enough for my taste.
Seems kinda dumb to go from one centralized service like X to another. Bluesky's claims of being decentralized are highly exaggerated.

This is for publishers. They announced this openly.

Bluesky has been doing enshitification since it didn’t mind having that transphobic man on their platform, as far as I’m concerned.

I mean, it was made by former Twitter execs... and that was marketed as an "advantage" over alternatives like Mastodon. This isn't surprising at all unless you literally don't pay any attention to anything.

That was fast

This is for publishers to track outgoing links.

fuck it's almost like the world runs on capitalism

They never needed to redirect to do that in the first place. It's probably just done for convenience. Websites quietly tracking outgoing links has been technically possible since the '90s.

For reference you can disable this with unlock origin https://github.com/uBlockOrigin/uAssets/pull/27500

You mean the company that was created by the worst of pre-Musk Twitter leadership, that claims to be open source and federated but actually isn't, that uses AI to moderate itself, and that has a policy that lets AI scrapers use your posts is actually bad? I'm shocked. Shocked!

Bluesky never felt quite right.

Wolves in sheep's clothing.