Bluesky gains momentum as users abandon Musk's X following the U.S. elections. What's happening?

The social network Bluesky attracted over 700,000 new users in just a week following the U.S. elections, as users seek to avoid misinformation and offensive content on X, reports The Guardian, as noted by UNN.

Details

The influx of new users, primarily from North America and the UK, has helped Bluesky reach a total of 14.5 million users worldwide, up from 9 million in September, the company stated.

Social media researcher Axel Bruns mentioned that the platform provides an alternative to X, formerly known as Twitter, featuring a more effective system for blocking or suspending problematic accounts and monitoring harmful behavior.

“It has become a refuge for people who want to have the same social media experience that Twitter used to offer, but without the extreme right activism, misinformation, hate speech, bots, and everything else,” he said.

“The more liberal Twitter community has really fled from there and seems to have moved en masse to Bluesky,” the researcher noted.

Additional Information

Bluesky started as a project within Twitter but became an independent company in 2022, primarily owned by CEO Jay Graber.

Previously, the platform capitalized on dissatisfaction with X and its billionaire owner Elon Musk, who is closely linked to the successful election campaign of U.S. President Donald Trump. Twitter lost millions of users after rebranding to X, with usage in the U.S. dropping by over one-fifth in just seven months.

Bluesky reported gaining 3 million new users within a week after X was banned in Brazil in September, and another 1.2 million in just two days after X announced that it would allow users to view posts from people who had blocked them.

“We are excited to welcome all these new people, from Swifties to wrestlers and urban planners,” said Bluesky representative Emily Liu.

Bluesky still trails Threads in the social networking category in the U.S. Apple App Store, which reported reaching 275 million active users per month in November, compared to 200 million in August.

The independent platform, as noted, has recently added features including direct messaging and video compatibility to more closely resemble X and differentiate itself from its competitor owned by Meta.