SAN FRANCISCO (AP) 鈥 Disgruntled X users are again flocking to Bluesky, a newer social media platform that grew out of the former Twitter before billionaire Elon Musk took it over in 2022. While it remains small compared to established online spaces such as X, it has emerged as an alternative for those looking for a different mood, lighter and friendlier and less influenced by Musk.
What is Bluesky?
, Bluesky was an invitation-only space until it opened to the public in February. That invite-only period gave the site time to build out moderation tools and other features. The platform resembles Musk鈥檚 X, with a 鈥渄iscover鈥 feed and a chronological feed for accounts that users follow. Users can send direct messages and pin posts, as well as find 鈥渟tarter packs鈥 that provide a curated list of people and custom feeds to follow.
Why is Bluesky growing?
Bluesky said in mid-November that its total users , up from roughly 13 million at the end of October, as some X users look for an alternative platform to post their thoughts and talk to others online. The post-election uptick in users isn鈥檛 the first time Bluesky has benefited from people leaving X. The platform gained 2.6 million users in the week after X was 鈥 85% of them from Brazil, the company said. About 500,000 new users signed up in one day in October, when X signaled that would be able to see a user鈥檚 public posts.
Across the platform, new users 鈥 among them journalists, left-leaning politicians and celebrities 鈥 have posted memes and shared that they were looking forward to using a space free from advertisements and hate speech. Some said it reminded them of the early days of Twitter more than a decade ago.
Despite Bluesky鈥檚 growth, X posted after the election that it had 鈥渄ominated the global conversation on the U.S. election鈥 and had set new records.
Beyond social networking
Bluesky, though, has bigger ambitions than to supplant X. Beyond the platform itself, it is building a technical foundation 鈥 what it calls 鈥渁 protocol for public conversation鈥 鈥 that could make social networks work across different platforms 鈥 also known as interoperability 鈥 like email, blogs or phone numbers.
Currently, you can鈥檛 cross between social platforms to leave a comment on someone鈥檚 account. Twitter users must stay on Twitter and TikTok users must stay on TikTok if they want to interact with accounts on those services. Big Tech companies have largely built moats around their online properties, which helps serve their advertising-focused business models.
Bluesky is trying to reimagine all of this and working toward interoperability.
