X to Bluesky migration gathers pace after US election

Combination of misinformation, propaganda and changes to terms of use the final straw

Social media platform Bluesky has seen an influx of more than 700,000 new users in the last week.

The new users are largely from North America and the UK and have taken Bluesky to 14.5 million users globally.

It’s not difficult to see why the US election has proved the final straw for X users who were already thoroughly disillusioned with the platform. The election campaign, and Elon Musk’s dedication to re-electing Donald Trump saw the site flooded with bots, far-right content and hate speech.

Musk is not, at the time of writing, officially a member of the new Trump administration, but the direction of travel is clear. X was an enormously useful propaganda outlet for Trump and MAGA during the campaign and that isn’t changing anytime soon.

Liberal Twitter has had enough.

Musk also pushed through changes to the block functionality on X, which means that even if you block an account, the owner of that account can still see what you post. Musk had long since expressed his dislike of the whole concept of being able to block users because it troubles his “free speech absolutist” line of thinking.

What troubles many current and former X users is the fact that even if blocked individuals cannot interact with your posts directly, they can interact with anyone who does, and they can also screenshot posts. The only people who will have their user experience improved by these changes are those who regularly harass and troll others.

X also updated its terms of service to inform users that their data would be used to train AI models. The new terms take effect on 15th November, and lots of new BlueSky users are busy deleting their entire X archives.

Bluesky began as a project inside Twitter but became an independent company in 2022. It is primarily owned by chief executive Jay Graber.

The platform has recently added features including direct messaging and video compatibility to more closely resemble X and to distinguish itself from Meta owned Threads, which it is still second to in the in the social networking category in Apple’s US app store.