Athira Sethu
Kochi, 15 November 2024
The social media app called Bluesky, named after a phrase used by Elon Musk, has experienced an enormous amount of users especially since people are leaving the once-familiar-destination Twitter, renamed X. The exodus began when Donald Trump first became president and would appear to continue with new terms of service instituted at X that would make it harder to sue the platform legally.
On the other hand, according to Sunday’s report from Bluesky, it has added 2.5 million new users within one week, bringing this on up to more than 16 million users. The platform said it was at a record number of likes, follows, and new accounts, and it’s even on track to gain one million users in a single day.
Many high-profile groups and individuals have quit X, citing concerns about content and the platform’s changed rules. Those in this group include the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate, the British newspaper The Guardian and former CNN anchor Don Lemon. Such exit has been linked to other issues, including misinformation that was churned during the elections on X.
The same day when Donald Trump was declared president, November 6, X saw 46.5 million visits in the US, marking the highest number of visits for the past year, 38% higher than normal. But that same day, more than 115,000 deactivated their X accounts in the US, the most since Elon Musk bought the platform.
On the same day, Bluesky experienced about 1.2 million visits, which was more than Meta’s Threads platform that reached 950,000 visitors. Still, at the aggregate level, Threads had more visitors than Bluesky.
According to experts, growth at the pace of Bluesky has issues with X, mainly causing controversial content or technical issues. They even report that the leaving of popular users and organizations on X led to many people looking for alternatives like Bluesky and Threads.
Just in time, Bluesky is reporting an uptick in its growth ahead of a major update on X’s terms of service. As of November 10, X will have a new rule: legal disputes must be settled in courts in Texas where the company is domiciled. This development can make it more challenging for people to sue X, pushing lawsuits into judges that Elon Musk believes will favor him.
The Center for Countering Digital Hate anticipated that this move might simplify winning legal battles for Musk, most critically against people who criticize the platform for not doing enough to prevent hate speech.
While Bluesky continues growing, it still remains much smaller in comparison to X and Threads. X boasts approximately 317 million users, whereas Threads boasts approximately 252 million. According to experts, X is strong because it can represent the views of Trump, who remains a powerful figure in the platform.
