We are in the face of a digital exodus, as Twitter/X users are running off to BlueSky in the face of policy changes that have angered users. It’s a very similar platform in concept to Twitter, created by Jack Dorsey, one of the founders of the social network that Elon Musk acquired. Among its many claims are a healthier overall environment, rigorous measures to combat harassment, and less political polarization. For this reason, it has been postulated as an increasingly obvious alternative for those users who want to avoid conflicts and who miss what Twitter was at the beginning of the last decade.
BlueSky and the new digital exodus
Since the middle of the last decade, it has become clear that social networks like X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook were very powerful information tools, capable of influencing the thinking and behavior of the masses. This made them prone to the proliferation of hoaxes and “fake news”, created on purpose to irritate public opinion and further polarize societies. The purchase of Twitter for $44 billion and its subsequent name change to X by Elon Musk has not improved the situation. After the transaction in 2022, hoaxes have proliferated on this platform alongside hate speech, cyberbullying, bots, scams, and, in short, impediments so broad and varied that they make healthy and calm navigation difficult for users.
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One of Musk’s most controversial measures to right the company’s helm and avoid the serious losses it was suffering has been the verification and monetization of accounts after payment, partly to alleviate the general progress of several large advertisers. This new source of income remains insufficient for Elon Musk, who continues to capitalize on the advances of his platform. Since then, almost every new measure implemented by X has benefited BlueSky, its main competition. A clear example of this was the modification of the block function in X in October 2024, which allowed blocked people to see the profiles and posts of the users who blocked them again. This change prompted an immediate increase in users on BlueSky, where half a million new registrations were detected the same day. Trump’s re-election as president of the United States seems to have been the straw that broke the camel’s back for many since Bluesky has registered a new record with more than a million new users on the same day, as reported by The Guardian.
This new social network founded by Jack Dorsey, one of the creators of Twitter, is having extraordinary growth. In September 2024, its total users were estimated to be around nine million, but currently, the number has risen to fifteen million registered accounts, hence growing 66% in just two months. These are still very modest numbers compared to those of X; The latest official figures spoke of 544 million accounts, but it is not known how many of them are from active users. In any case, the trend is clear: An increasingly hostile environment given the enormous political polarization of Elon Musk’s platform.
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This polarization has also caused an exodus of journalists, information professionals, and news agencies, who have also chosen to reduce or eliminate their presence on this platform. The main reason is the increasing difficulty of verifying information in an environment saturated with fake news and marked by increasing political polarization, factors that make informative work extremely difficult. This has led news agencies such as the American NPR to decide to abandon X completely, in an effort to protect their credibility and journalistic rigor. This way, BlueSky has established itself as the new “promised land” for these professionals, who are looking for a safer and more respectful space in which to share verified information.
How BlueSky works and how to join
BlueSky is presented as a social network with a structure similar to Twitter, allowing users to post short messages, follow other users, and participate in conversations. Although it has several restrictions with respect to X in terms of uploading multimedia content, little by little new features are being implemented that add new functionalities and improvements to the platform. Its focus is on offering a healthier environment, free of the excessive political polarization and misinformation that has plagued other platforms such as X or Facebook. This platform uses a decentralized system based on the “AT Protocol”, which allows it to be more flexible and less susceptible to the restrictive policies of centralized networks.
Although BlueSky was previously only accessible by invitation, currently any user can register and log in without other prerequisites. You can use the web client or download the application from the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store. Once inside, users can start following others, writing posts, uploading videos and images, and, ultimately, enjoying a less toxic space to interact with other people from around the world.
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