Why Users Are Flocking from Elon Musk's X to Bluesky
Elon Musk's X platform (formerly Twitter) is experiencing a significant exodus as users migrate to Bluesky.
Since the recent U.S. presidential elections, nearly a million new users have joined Bluesky, leading it to top download charts on Apple's App Store and Google's Play Store in the U.S. Bluesky is now home to 19 million users, growing from 10 million in early September.
Users are leaving X primarily due to Elon Musk’s support for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and his decision to invest heavily through a super PAC.
The situation escalated when President-elect Trump announced Musk would join his cabinet, a move that concerned users who feared X might become a right-wing echo chamber.
Moreover, X’s new terms and conditions, effective November 15, allow the use of private posts to train AI models like Grok, prompting further user concerns.
Originally an internal project by former X CEO Jack Dorsey, Bluesky launched in 2019 and became an independent entity in 2021 under Jay Graber's leadership.
It differentiates itself by allowing users to customize their feeds with selectable algorithms and use website addresses as handles, promoting authenticity and potential verification benefits.
Bluesky is working to manage rapid growth, addressing 42,000 moderation reports in a single day, a stark contrast to the 360,000 reports in total for 2023.
To sustain its expansion, the platform seeks to hire additional staff and urges users to report any spam or scam accounts while implementing email verification for new users.