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There's a whole lot of conversation still to be had about proving identity, but just want to call out that this option is available right now (and super cool to see!) The only way Dylan could get a nytimes-dot-com handle like this is if nytimes set it up!

Dylan Freedman@dylanfreedman.nytimes.com

Update: I'm now @dylanfreedman.nytimes.com!

The fact that so many people have a problem with DNS as proof of ownership really shows how many people's brains have been utterly cooked by corporate social media. If no one knows who you are and you don't have a website, respectfully, maybe you don't need to be "verified".

Lots of journalists don't *need* to have their own domain, because they work for a publisher. But If they e.g. say something pro-Palestine and get fired, their handle is lost. @bsky.app has dropped the ball a bit by not letting you keep your bsky.social handle when you switch to authing with DNS.

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We can argue "Users should know to make a back-up account to squat on myname@bsky.social/have their own DNS just in case" but the whole reason this place is more popular than Mastodon is because non-tech people *don't* have to think about that kind of thing.

Can't agree more, it only takes looking at my colleagues complaining about the lack of verification to realise how much you have to lower the bar to entry bsky.app/profile/tk.g...

Hey @safety.bsky.app, can we have a "forwarding address" added to AT to assist in squatting name.bsky.app addresses when we want to use a domain name for verification. Particularly useful for journalists' adoption of news org domains as their old generic handle still exists should they leave.

When you change your username any mentions to the old username will still link to your account, even if someone else claims your previous username. Links and mentions from other websites to your old username would still be a problem, of course.

Right, so imagine you’re a big Korean journo covering the coup and the president demands your firing. Now nobody can find or follow you until you fix your handle, whilst impersonators can move in during an important window.

Is it Bluesky's job to police foreign government actions? I get what you're saying but I'm not sure this is actually a thing any social site can defend against if they're using the state to seize social accounts.