– Competitor Bluesky benefits from X-blocking
The online service Bluesky has so far found it difficult to compete with Elon Musk’s Twitter successor X. In Brazil, this has now changed.
Published today at 03:23
Enormous influx: Since X was blocked in Brazil on Friday, the online service Bluesky has gained one million new users.
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The blocking of Elon Musk’s online platform X in Brazil has resulted in a significant increase in users for its much smaller competitor Bluesky. The app’s creators announced at the weekend that they have gained a million new users in the past few days. According to media reports, X, formerly Twitter, has around 20 million users in Brazil.
Judge Alexandre de Moraes of the Supreme Federal Court had X blocked in the South American country. He has long accused the service of not taking decisive enough action against the spread of hate speech and fake news.
The conflict recently escalated. The judge demanded that X block the accounts of right-wing activists who spread conspiracy theories and false information. Musk described the demand as illegal, but the online platform did not comply – and did not pay the imposed fine.
Increase in popularity since the shift to the right on Twitter and X
When Musk also ignored an ultimatum demanding that he appoint a legal representative for Brazil, Moraes ordered the ban on Friday. Musk, for his part, referred to freedom of speech and called the judge an “evil dictator.”
Bluesky and other competing offerings have already received some traction in recent years from users who disliked the shift to the right at Twitter and X after Musk bought them in October 2022. The tech billionaire and head of electric car manufacturer Tesla himself supports the American right, whose views he spreads daily to his approximately 190 million followers at X.
However, the various apps have not yet been able to achieve the importance of X. Some have already failed. The most popular of the X alternatives is Threads from the Facebook group Meta, which recently had around 200 million monthly active users.
Dispute in Brazil escalates
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