Bluesky adds 700,000 new members as users flee X after the US election | Bluesky

[Pelican Press 0]

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Bluesky adds 700,000 new members as users flee X after the US election | Bluesky

Social media platform Bluesky has picked up more than 700,000 new users in the week since the US election, as users seek to escape misinformation and offensive posts on X.

The influx, largely from North America and the ***, has helped Bluesky reach 14.5 million users worldwide, up from 9 million in September, the company said.

Social media researcher Axel Bruns said the platform offered an alternative to X, formerly

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, including a more effective system for blocking or suspending problematic accounts and policing harmful behaviour.

“It’s become a refuge for people who want to have the kind of social media experience that

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used to provide, but without all the far-right activism, the misinformation, the hate speech, the bots and everything else,” he said.

“The more ******** kind of

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community has really now escaped from there and seems to have moved en masse to Bluesky.”

Bluesky began as a project inside

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but became an independent company in 2022, and is now

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by chief executive Jay Graber.

The platform has previously benefited from dissatisfaction with X and its billionaire owner, Elon Musk, who is closely tied to US president-elect Donald Trump’s successful election campaign.

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shed millions of users after rebranding to X and usage in the US slumped by more than a fifth in the subsequent seven months.

Bluesky reported

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in the week after X was suspended in Brazil in September and a

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in the two days after X announced it would allow users to view posts from people who had blocked them.

“We’re excited to welcome all of these new people, ranging from Swifties to wrestlers to city planners,” Bluesky spokesperson Emily Liu said.

Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a historian and professor at New York University, had 250,000 followers on X but picked up 21,000 followers in her first day on Bluesky this week.

“I am still on X but after January, when X could be owned by a de facto member of the Trump administration, its functions as a Trump *********** outlet and far-right radicalization machine could be accelerated,” she said.

Bluesky is still second to Threads in the social networking category on Apple’s US App Store, which

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reaching 275 million monthly active users in November, up from 200 million in August.

The independent platform has recently added features including direct messaging and video compatibility to more closely resemble X and distinguish itself from its Meta-owned competitor.

Ben-Ghiat has found the site’s “starter packs”, or groups of people with similar expertise and interest, a refreshing way in.

“[They] promise to give Bluesky some of what I valued on

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/X: informed takes on a subject from multiple points of view,” she said.

Bruns, a professor at Queensland University of Technology’s Digital Media Research Center, said the ********** in user numbers had created “growing pains” as new users learned to navigate the site but was ultimately adding to the site’s momentum.

“It really feels like a throwback to those days of the early excitement about social media in many ways, and that’s what, at the moment, attracts quite a few people,” he said. “It just makes it more vibrant, more active place.”

On Monday night, New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez posted that she was “back” on Bluesky, saying “Good **** it’s nice to be in a digital space with other real human beings.” Her post was liked by 27,000 people.

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#Bluesky #adds #members #users #flee #election #Bluesky

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