DNA Explainer: Why are millions switching from Elon Musk's X to Jack Dorsey's Bluesky?

One million users are daily shifting from X(formerly known as Twitter) to its rival social media platform, Bluesky as per reports. The figure is rapidly growing raising questions as to why the users are abandoning Elon Musk’s social media platform. Bluesky was founded by Jack Dorsey, former Twitter head, with a vision of creating a decentralised Twitter-like platform. Bluesky offers similar features like X, that of ‘search’, ‘notifications’ etc. However, it differs from X in the aspect that it has a decentralised design. The users can also create custom domains for personalisation in Bluesky, which uses ‘social media as it should be’ in its description. 

Bluesky witnessed a surge in its total users to 15 million in mid-November. It earlier stood at 13 million at the end of October. The sudden surge is traced to Elon Musk’s support for Republican Donald Trump during the US election. Donald’s win in the election induced political division and Musk’s participation in his administration has led users to seek alternatives. Currently, Bluesky has 16.7 million users. Celebrities like  Lizzo, Jamie Lee Curtis, Patton Oswalt and Ben Stiller have also joined the platform. 

New users joining Bluesky have shared that they were seeking a space free from advertisements and hate speeches. Some also felt nostalgia for the early Twitter space after joining the platform. Bluesky gives the original Twotter experience in functionality. This is not the first time, Bluesky is gaining traction among the X users. Earlier, when X was banned in Brazil, it gained 2.6 million users in August. It added another 5,00,000 users after X set to enable blocked accounts to see a user’s public posts. 

Meanwhile, Bluesky is looking forward to expanding beyond social networking. The platform is working on a technical foundation, interoperability, which can enable social networks to work across different platforms.