With Donald Trump winning the US election, many people are leaving X, formerly known as Twitter, and moving to platforms like Bluesky or Threads. It had about 700,000 users since the election results were announced. This happens in spaces that used to belong to everyone but in some ways seem to belong only to a few. Elon MuskX’s CEO publicly supported Trump and embraced the Republican campaign. At the same time, the tone of the content far right ideologyAs pointed out in guardian Ruth Bem-Ghiat, American historian and professor. This change did not happen overnight, but it was inexorable.
Social media researcher Axel Bruns told the British newspaper that Bluesky had “become a refuge” for people wanting to experience what Twitter once offered. However, “all far-right activity, disinformation, hate speech, bot And everything else.” The app now has 14.5 million users, compared to 10 million in September. Other factors contributing to the increase in membership include: X blockade in BrazilIn September, the number of new subscribers exceeded 1 million in 3 days.
Inês Amaral, a professor and social media researcher at the University of Coimbra, said I believe so. , as happened in Brazil.
The Bluesky project was born on Twitter. Announced in 2019 It was written by Jack Dorsey, founder of the former Bird Network, which will become independent in 2021. official company page. By the end of 2022 Recommended by Elon Musk Twitter converted it to an X, ending platform funding for Republican-leaning Bluesky. The new social network is now a public interest organization managed by current CEO Jay Graber and his team.
People are running full speed ahead on X, and those who are sticking around seem very interested in Republican politics. Analysis results: www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2…
— Drew Howell (@drewharwell.com) November 12, 2024 1:16 AM
X’s abandonment
In a recent statement, a spokesperson said: app“We’re excited to welcome all these new people, from Taylor Swift fans to wrestlers to urban planners,” said Emily Liu. that magazine madGroup organizer Irene Kim Swifties for KamalaThe “landslide of misogyny” that followed the election convinced many fans that they had abandoned X.
Some may see Bluesky as a half-open door into a space lacking political alignment, or perhaps it’s recent enough that this type of brand doesn’t exist yet. The truth, according to Axel Bruns, is that the “mass migration” to other social networks is the “freest community.” This digital migration is a small revolution and a silent rebellion. New York Democratic Representative Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez said: As soon as I got back to Bluesky: “Oh my god, it’s nice to be back in the digital space with other real humans!”
Inês Amaral comments: “I don’t think Bluesky will be that alternative, at least not for now. I think we’ve shown that a fully commercialized platform is already being implemented in the market. For a long time we didn’t have YouTube on Facebook or anything like that. They are becoming more and more powerful, more and more commercial, more popular platforms.”
Brands already launched
last Wednesday, guardian Also announced. I left my old Twitter.In a statement released by the newspaper itself: “The US presidential election campaign served to highlight that X is a toxic platform and that its owner, Elon Musk, has used his influence to shape the discourse (…). political”.
Accordingly, Spanish newspapers vanguard left This Thursday. The media outlet said in a statement that the platform had been “turned into a sounding board for conspiracy theories and misinformation.” On the same day, Silicon Republic earth The Irish tech news outlet left the social network, believing that “moderation is hard, but X doesn’t even pretend to moderate anymore.”
This decision is reminiscent of other cases where X has been abandoned, such as that of public broadcasters in the United States. national public radio (NPR) Electronics public broadcasting service (PBS).
The emergence of Blue Sky
Bluesky is already in first place. app store (Apple) ahead in the US thread From Meta (owner of Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp) you download There has been a surge in social networks primarily in the US and UK, but also in Portugal. This is public account. Bluesky did not respond in a timely manner to PÚBLICO when asked about the current number of users in Portugal.
In Brazil, a Bluesky legal representative has already been appointed, which is in accordance with local law and The same requirements that led to X being blocked In South American countries. Independent platforms have recently adopted direct messaging and video support to build their own relevance. These resources represent an effort to get closer to X’s previous incarnation, but offer a different proposition than Meta’s competitors.
Text edited by Pedro Esteves
