A seismic shift is underway in the social media landscape.
Following the US presidential election, nearly a million users have abandoned Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) for the burgeoning platform Bluesky.
This exodus, dubbed the “X-odus” online, has seen a surge of journalists, actors, musicians, and other prominent figures flocking to Bluesky, propelling it to the top of app download charts on both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
Bluesky now boasts an impressive 19 million users, a dramatic increase from just 10 million in early September.
The political catalyst behind the exodus
The mass migration is largely attributed to Elon Musk’s open support for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, including the formation of a super PAC that poured nearly $200 million into the election effort.
Many X users had vowed to leave the platform if Trump returned to power.
The subsequent announcement of Musk’s cabinet appointment in the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency alongside Vivek Ramaswamy further fueled the exodus, with some users expressing concerns about X potentially becoming an echo chamber for right-wing viewpoints.
Beyond politics: data privacy concerns fuel the fire
However, the migration isn’t solely driven by political factors.
A recent update to X’s terms and conditions, effective November 15th, allows the platform to utilize user-generated content, including posts, photos, and videos, even from private accounts, to train its AI chatbot model, Grok.
The updated terms explicitly state: “You agree that this license includes the right for us to (i) analyze text and other information you provide…for use with and training of our machine learning and artificial intelligence models, whether generative or another type.”
This change has raised significant data privacy concerns among users, further contributing to the exodus.
What is Bluesky and how does it offer an alternative?
Bluesky, initially conceived as an internal project by former X CEO Jack Dorsey in 2019, transitioned from an invite-only platform to a public entity in February of that year.
In 2021, it became an independent company under the leadership of CEO Jay Graber.
Bluesky offers users greater control over their feeds by allowing them to choose the algorithms that determine content visibility.
It also utilizes website addresses as handles, promoting authenticity and potentially mitigating the bot activity that plagues X.
This feature also offers a potential verification tool for public figures and journalists.
Can Bluesky handle the influx?
The sudden surge in users presents a significant challenge for Bluesky.
The platform recently reported receiving 42,000 moderation reports in a single 24-hour period, compared to 360,000 for the entirety of 2023.
The Bluesky team is actively recruiting new moderators and has implemented email verification for new signups to manage the influx and maintain platform integrity.
They have also appealed to users to assist in reporting troll, spam, and scam accounts.
The post From X to Bluesky: what’s driving the platform shift? appeared first on Invezz