How to block Bluesky Link Preview Service
Operated by Bluesky. Bluesky social pulls links in advance to render webpage previews.
nginx
In the server block, then reload.
nginx
# In the server block. 403 rather than 444: a closed connection tells the
# operator nothing, and an agent that gets a status code can log it.
if ($http_user_agent ~* "(Bluesky/|Bluesky Link Preview Service)") {
return 403;
}
Apache
In .htaccess or the vhost.
Apache
BrowserMatchNoCase "Bluesky/" bad_bot
BrowserMatchNoCase "Bluesky Link Preview Service" bad_bot
<RequireAll>
Require all granted
Require not env bad_bot
</RequireAll>
Cloudflare
Security → WAF → Custom rules.
Cloudflare
# Security → WAF → Custom rules, action: Block (http.user_agent contains "Bluesky/") or (http.user_agent contains "Bluesky Link Preview Service")
WordPress
A child theme's functions.php, or a small plugin.
WordPress
// functions.php of a child theme, or a small plugin. Runs before WordPress
// builds the page, so a blocked agent costs one PHP process and no queries.
add_action('init', function () {
$agent = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] ?? '';
foreach (['Bluesky/', 'Bluesky Link Preview Service'] as $needle) {
if (stripos($agent, $needle) !== false) {
status_header(403);
exit('Blocked: Bluesky Link Preview Service');
}
}
});
A rule on the user agent is a rule on a string it chose
The server rules match on a header the requester sets, which stops the agent that says who it is and not the one that copies somebody else's name. Botscope verifies identity against DNS and published address ranges, records which check decided each request, and shows you the ones that lied.