this post was submitted on 01 Sep 2025
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Everytime I see bluesky PBC I have to resist the urge to rant. There is no such thing as a public benefit corporation. Its just marketing BS.
Actually there is a legal definition, a Public Benefit Corporation has statutes in its articles of incorporation which legally commit the company to pursue a set purpose which supersedes the fiduciary responsibility of the corporation to shareholders. This is important because it provides some degree of legal protection from activist shareholders suing the company for making spending or policy decisions which don't directly maximize shareholder value. The body of law around this issue is still relatively murky, but some defense is better than none at all.
For example, shareholders could attempt to sue BlueSky into increasing advertising placement or data sales functionality intothe core platform to increase company revenues, but if that is at odds with their stated public benefit purpose the legal team for BluSky would have grounds to attempt to dismiss the suit on the grounds that the shareholders purchase the shares under the explicit understanding that these functions would be subordinated to the public benefit goals of the platform.
No almost all of that is misconception. Shareholders can sue normal companies and "PBC" for not maximizing shareholder value. PBC are still legally required to cater to shareholders interests. Legal scholars say that PBCs do not provide any protection against shareholders suing and data shows it does not stop profit maximizing behavior. Its pure marketing.
Be strong now. Mastodon is a gGmbH. That's the German version and translates to public benefit limited liability corporation.
Yes but we like mastodon because they're open and if they fuck up we can move away at any time. Bluesky is completely closed except the protocol and the network is fully centralized. They're just waiting until they have enough marketshare to enshitify.