In the wake of Elon Musk buying Twitter and rebranding the platform as X, alternative social media platforms have popped up, giving users a place to gather in cyberspace outside of Musk’s company. Two apps of note are Bluesky and Truth Social, both of which have gained reputations for being partisan platforms.
Truth Social is a platform developed by Trump Media & Technology Group and published Feb. 21, 2022. On the app, users can post “Truths” or “Re-Truths” to share their content. Truth Social has a 4.5-star rating on the App Store out of about 117,000 ratings. The app requires users to be 18 years old to make an account, although it does not check birth dates, according to the Associated Press.
Its description on the App Store asked users to think of the platform as a family gathering where people can share their differing opinions and still get along.
“Uncle Jim from Atlanta is a proud libertarian. Aunt Kellie from Texas is a staunch conservative. Your cousin John from California is a die-hard liberal. And guess what? They’re all together to have an amazing time and share their different viewpoints with the world,” the description said.
Truth Social’s main competition comes from Bluesky, a platform partially developed by Twitter’s former CEO, Jack Dorsey, but is currently run by Jay Graber, a software engineer, according to Forbes. The app opened to the public February 2024.
The app physically resembles Twitter’s design. It requires users to be over the age of 17 to make an account. Once an account is made, users can select their interests to curate their feed, such as “politics” or “books.”
While Truth Social is ranked 47 out of 200 on free Social Networking apps, while Bluesky is ranked first. Other social media apps like TikTok and Instagram are ranked first and second in their categories, Entertainment and Photo & Video, respectively. Bluesky has a 4.3-star rating on the App Store out of about 5,100 reviews. Its description advertised the app as a place for people to stay connected.
“Let’s have fun online again. Be yourself and riff with your friends, all while having the option to keep tabs on what’s happening at a global scale,” the description said.
While both Truth Social and Bluesky market themselves as places for people to gather and share ideas, each app has a distinct political lean. Truth Social highlights conservative news outlets and figureheads, while Bluesky is seen by users as a platform for liberals, especially after the election, according to The Washington Post.
To Daniel Farkas, the rise in alternative political social media platforms is nothing new.
Farkas is a visiting professor of strategic communication at Ohio University. One of the classes he teaches is Strategic Social Media, which focuses on how to create social media content that aligns with an organization’s goals.
“This is sort of a logical progression of ‘There are people in this space that we candidly don’t want to deal with for a variety of reasons, and so let’s find a spot that’s more ours’ which isn’t a novel concept,” he said.
To Farkas, while the ideas behind the evolving technology are not new, neither are the potential consequences.
“When you’re in an environment where all you do is spend your time in the echo chamber, that’s hard for you to have appropriate discourse,” Farkas said. “…You need to be able to read outlets that are diverse and varied so you can get different perspectives, use your brain and make a decision.”
Farkas could see a future where apps like Bluesky and Truth Social add to the spread of misinformation and disinformation.
“There will be misinformation, there will be fewer filters to deal with it,” he said.
While neither app is close to replacing major platforms like Instagram, TikTok and X, both have made names for themselves in cyberspace.
