In the week since the United States presidential election, Elon Musk has used X, the social media platform he owns, to reiterate his support for the president-elect Donald Trump.
Some of the platform’s users have decided that they prefer to publish elsewhere.
Among the biggest beneficiaries of this trend is Bluesky, a rival service that has gained more than a million new users in the week since the electionEmily Liu, a company spokeswoman, said Tuesday. Most of the new users live in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, he added.
“We are seeing increased activity levels across all forms of participation,” he said in an email.
Bluesky, which started in 2019 as a project by the founder of Twitter, Jack Dorseyis one of several platforms that have seen a big boost since Musk bought Twitter in 2022, and began its rebrand.
Accounts created on Bluesky this week, many of which are left-leaning, shared cat videos along with their hopes that the platform can offer respite from the misinformation and hate speech that have swarmed X since its acquisition of Musk.
Among the new or recently active users on the platform are celebrities (the rapper Flavor Flavthe writer John Green), Democratic political figures (New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Chasten Buttigieghusband of Pete ButtigiegSecretary of Transportation) and media personalities (Mehdi Hasan, Molly Jong-Fast).
“Hello, less hateful world,” he posted on Tuesday. Mark Cubanthe billionaire and supporter of Kamala Harris.
Bluesky received its first wave of high-profile users last spring, and in February it went from being an invitation-only network to being open to the public. It now has 14.7 million usersthe company said.
There are still many less than Threadsthe platform created by Meta to compete with X, which this month reported that it had reached 275 million monthly active users. (A Meta spokesperson declined to say whether that figure had changed after the election.)
Since the election, there is a “sense of momentum” in Blueskysaid Shannon C. McGregorassociate professor at the Hussman School of Journalism and Media at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. McGregor claimed that many of the people leaving X are disappointed by the outcome of the election, and now associate the platform with Musk’s support for Trump.
Others are frustrated by the type of content that appears at the top of their accounts. “You’re getting this horrible timeline of far-right, white supremacist, conspiracy theory posts, which the vast majority of people don’t want to interact with on a daily basis,” said McGregor, whose research focuses on the intersection of networks. social and political.
Bluesky appears to be courting users who are concerned about the ramifications of Musk’s proximity to the incoming president. After The New York Times reported that Musk spent election night with Trump, Bluesky’s account posted a message on to control what you see on the internet.”
Bluesky users are doing everything they can to help with the flood of newcomers. Many are posting welcome messages, introductions, or “starter packs,” which are lists of accounts that might appeal to someone based on their opinions or interests.
“I see a lot of people trying to help users who want to find their way in a new place,” said John, 45, who lives in Minnesota and runs a Bluesky account that shares scenes of Star Trek.
John, who declined to share his last name publicly, began posting about Star Trek on Twitter in 2017. But he said his experience worsened significantly after Musk’s acquisition. His posts seemed to receive responses from fewer and fewer supporters of Star Trekand more from bots and users who had purchased verification.
He joined Bluesky last year, and estimated he had gained more than 2,000 followers since the election. “In the last week, it’s been more like what I used to like about Twitter,” he said.
Callie Holtermann covers style and pop culture for the Times.
© The New York Times 2024.
