Bluesky adds 700,000 new members as users flee X after the US election
Bluesky adds 700,000 new members as users flee X after the US election
Social media platform has become a 'refuge' from the far-right activism on X, experts say, after Elon Musk teamed up with Donald Trump
Luca Ittimani
Tue 12 Nov 2024 13.44 AEDTSocial media platform Bluesky has picked up more than 700,000 new users in the week since the US election, as users seek to escape misinformation and offensive posts on X.
The influx, largely from North America and the UK, has helped Bluesky reach 14.5 million users worldwide, up from 9 million in September, the company said.
Social media researcher Axel Bruns said the platform offered an alternative to X, formerly Twitter, including a more effective system for blocking or suspending problematic accounts and policing harmful behaviour.
...
"It's become a refuge for people who want to have the kind of social media experience that Twitter used to provide, but without all the far-right activism, the misinformation, the hate speech, the bots and everything else," he said.
...
The platform has previously benefited from dissatisfaction with X and its billionaire owner, Elon Musk, who is closely tied to US president-elect Donald Trump's successful election campaign. Twitter shed millions of users after rebranding to X and usage in the US slumped by more than a fifth in the subsequent seven months.Bluesky reported picking up 3 million new users in the week after X was suspended in Brazil in September and a further 1.2 million in the two days after X announced it would allow users to view posts from people who had blocked them.
Bluesky is a decentralized microblogging social networking service primarily operated by Bluesky Social, PBC. It was created as a proof of concept for the AT Protocol, a communication protocol for decentralized social networks. The platform is analogous to Twitter, where users can share short text posts, images, and video, and can like, repost, or reply to any given post. Bluesky Social claims the social app was "designed to not be controlled by a single company" through the use of the AT Protocol as its foundation. Bluesky Social promotes a composable user experience and algorithmic choice as core features of Bluesky, offering a "marketplace of algorithms" where users can choose or create feeds to customize their experience. Bluesky offers a DNS-based domain name handle system through the AT Protocol, allowing users to verify an account's legitimacy and identity after signing up by proving ownership of a domain name without involving Bluesky Social in the verification process.
Bluesky was originally created as a research initiative in 2019 by then-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to investigate the possibility of decentralizing the platform. This initiative resulted in the hiring of Jay Graber in August 2021 to lead the Bluesky project and what is now the AT Protocol, with initial funding provided by Twitter. After the acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk, Twitter severed all legal and financial ties with Bluesky Social. This led to the rapid development of the Bluesky social app and the AT Protocol as a minimum viable product, initially launching as an invite-only beta. The social app opened registrations to the general public in February 2024. Bluesky is considered a major competitor to Twitter following the acquisition of the platform by Elon Musk, alongside Threads and Mastodon
(Score: 3, Insightful) by turgid on Friday November 15, @03:36PM (12 children)
I believe the number of Web searches for how to emigrate from the USA to various other English speaking countries has gone up by a factor of ten recently.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 2) by looorg on Friday November 15, @06:24PM (10 children)
Didn't that happen last time he won to? How many of them actually moved? We know that all the celebs that said it are mostly all liars since they didn't move. Doubtful if the normal people did any or much better. This is feel-good-searching. Trying to quiet the screaming voices on the inside. Then nothing happens. Otherwise wouldn't there be an avalanche of people
runningdriving north to Canada by now?(Score: 2) by turgid on Friday November 15, @06:42PM (5 children)
Well, this is the thing. "If you don't like it, you can just leave." This time there's Project 2025 and Presidential Infallibility. I wouldn't risk it. I'd be Canadian before you can say "dictatorship."
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 4, Funny) by janrinok on Friday November 15, @08:41PM (4 children)
Trump has said (and I cannot find the link at this moment) that he will have made sweeping changes by the time of the next mid-terms. Will that include who can vote? Will there be changes that mean the votes will always be biased a certain way? Will it include how you prove that you are entitled to vote? Will you have to be employed? Americans might have just had their last democratic vote.
He has also said that he will run the US more like a commercial enterprise. As I recall, he doesn't have such a good record in that department. I think he is banking on Elon to sort it out - or be the fall guy if it all goes wrong.
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: 2) by turgid on Friday November 15, @09:03PM (3 children)
I'm sure Elon will want a turn next.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 2) by cmdrklarg on Monday November 18, @08:24PM (2 children)
1. Elon can't, as he isn't a natural born US citizen.
2. The Florida Orange Man isn't likely to want anyone else to have a turn (any bets on whether they try to allow him to get a 3rd term?)
The world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams.
(Score: 2) by turgid on Monday November 18, @08:54PM (1 child)
1. I'm sure the Constitution can be amended. I mean, the SCOTUS granted the President immunity recently, so they have infinite power.
2. He doesn't have to want anyone else to have a turn. As soon as he ceases to be useful to his Deep State types, he'll be out on his ear. He's no spring chicken either. He is nothing but a useful idiot.
History rhymes.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 2) by cmdrklarg on Tuesday November 19, @06:03PM
1. Not quite that easy. Yes, the GOP has all 3 branches of government after January, but they don't quite have enough of a majority to force something like that through.
A proposed amendment either has to be brought forward by 2/3rds majorities of both the House and Senate, or by 2/3rds of state legislatures.
Once it is brought forward it needs to be ratified by 3/4ths of state legislatures, or by 3/4ths of state ratifying conventions to become part of the Constitution.
Not going to happen.
2. Agreed.
The world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Friday November 15, @08:43PM (3 children)
There has been a significant increase in the number of Americans moving to France. Perhaps not significant relative to the population of the USA, but certainly significant and making people think here in France.
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: 5, Funny) by Tork on Friday November 15, @08:54PM (2 children)
Oh man.. I am so so sorry.
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Friday November 15, @09:14PM (1 child)
Thanks Tork - I needed a laugh!
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Tork on Friday November 15, @09:19PM
That has haunted me.
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Tork on Friday November 15, @03:46PM (2 children)
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 2) by kazzie on Friday November 15, @07:07PM
A lot of Twitter is critical of others.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday November 15, @09:26PM
Critical mass is a facet of the Network Effect [wikipedia.org]
The cost of multi-homing/switching is not that high, very likely the market won't be completely tipping [wikipedia.org]
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 15, @04:11PM (3 children)
Some of the left-wing silos on the Internet are just as toxic as the right-wing ones. It's just that the right is in power now, so it's a bigger problem. Just ask anybody on reddit about "tankies".
I'm not excited about bluesky. Not at all. In the 60s somebody said, "the medium is the message". The message of social media seems to be echo chambers all the way down. Let's just spend more time in the big blue room with the bright light, and if we're lucky we'll be able to look back on social media as a fad some day.
And yes, this site is social media too on some level; but it's got a focus. Death to social media. Long live forums. Back in the day, forums would boot you off for discussing politics, as it was known to bring "more heat than light".
Fuck Trump; but fuck you and your "pronouns in bio" too. Let's just talk about model trains or something.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 15, @04:30PM (1 child)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_McLuhan [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Saturday November 16, @02:03AM
The medium is the massage.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday November 15, @09:50PM
Oh, so it must be true, right?
That's a reflection of your society, not the cause of it. Sure, the Social Media made reaching the extreme polarization more efficient, but it was only a mean.
You will have to look at/into yourselves to discover the cause and, if lucky, start correcting it.
Lost the capability of tolerance, haven't you? Maybe that's a thing which is actually needed for healing?
Righto, mate, the model trains or something (eg STEM topics only, you hear me S/N :large-grin:) is such a nice and warm sand to stick one's head in and forget the cultural polarization. Except that you're proposing to "carve" yet another "partition", so... why not bluesky?
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 4, Disagree) by VLM on Friday November 15, @04:50PM (10 children)
This is social media, which is nearly dead. So probably 630,000 bots and 70,000 humans? Ratio is probably worse than that. Not that much of a story.
This might be good marketing, remember "the people" used to pay attention to legacy media and social media, until they were repelled away, and now the kind of people that repelled them away are self-segregating themselves into a new echo chamber making the previous site usable for normal people, again.
Note how its described. Then consider who won the election. The people who wrote this are not normal nor are the people they're writing about. The election winners are the centrists now, and if the extremists who lost want to withdraw from public discourse... this is not a bad thing, culturally.
In short, America is healing.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 15, @06:09PM
And if not, you'll find another sorry excuse to blame it on someone else.
(Score: 5, Touché) by Laci on Friday November 15, @06:35PM (1 child)
Not if RFK Jr. leads the Department of Health...
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Tork on Friday November 15, @06:42PM (6 children)
Heh. "Our lives will get so much better when people just shut up. We're tired of hearing about our guy is a felon!"
It's not. In a couple of months the right is likely to face difficult questions about where the trillion dollars needed to keep Trump's campaign promises is coming from. This will likely accompany difficult-to-answer questions about why the urgency is justified. (You *know* you're gonna be in for abrasive criticism if anything resembling a tent city goes up during that process.) There is going to be a lot of human-babble on social media even if the bot ratio is crazy, and the feelz are gonna fly.
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DadaDoofy on Friday November 15, @06:53PM (5 children)
"the right is likely to face difficult questions about where the trillion dollars needed to keep Trump's campaign promises is coming from."
Here's where:
https://dogegov.com/ [dogegov.com]
(Score: 2) by Tork on Friday November 15, @06:57PM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 15, @07:22PM
How soon before everyone starts pronouncing Elmo's latest wet dream as
Dodgy Gov
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 15, @08:17PM
i am growing increasingly concerned about the number of people who are placing this much trust in elon because people they don't like criticized him.
i wonder what dogecoin holders think will happen when a trillion of dogecoin is suddenly spent. lol
(Score: 2) by turgid on Friday November 15, @09:31PM (1 child)
Are you going to be working 80 hours/week for Elon for free?
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 3, Funny) by Tork on Friday November 15, @11:13PM
I'm not high-IQ enough to do that. :(
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 1, Troll) by DadaDoofy on Friday November 15, @06:37PM (1 child)
Didn't this happen the last time the left got triggered? What was it called? Oh yeah, Mastadon. Because that worked out so well...
(Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 15, @06:43PM
(Score: 2, Interesting) by DadaDoofy on Friday November 15, @08:19PM (1 child)
I should also point out, while some users who pine for the lefty echo chamber of old have left, who cares? The all important advertisers are flocking back.
https://trendingpoliticsnews.com/report-top-advertisers-flock-back-to-x-after-decisive-trump-victory-mstef/ [trendingpoliticsnews.com]
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 15, @08:31PM
(Score: 3, Funny) by mcgrew on Saturday November 16, @03:34AM
Isn't he the president of Poland?
A Russian operative has infiltrated the highest level of our government. Where's Joe McCarthy when we need him?
(Score: 3, Informative) by Isia on Sunday November 17, @06:11AM
https://x.com/pk13510/status/1857816975726055708 [x.com]
BlueSky will become a hub for s*x trafficking and other extremely illegal activity?
Belief in a higher being is for the stupid, the weak and the cowardly.