Topline
The new social media app Bluesky looks nearly indistinguishable from Twitter—unsurprisingly, since they share a co-founder, Jack Dorsey—and it’s garnered online buzz in recent days as some look to the platform as an alternative to Twitter for users unhappy with Elon Musk’s leadership.
The Bluesky social media app logo is seen on a mobile device. (Photo by Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via … [+]
Key Facts
Bluesky still hasn’t fully launched to the public—it’s currently invite-only and launched its beta version for iOS in February and for Android in April.
To join Bluesky, prospective users can either join a waitlist or get in if they know someone—existing users get one code per week they can share to recruit a new user.
Though the app looks visually similar to Twitter, it takes a different approach: It’s a “decentralized” platform, meaning user data will be stored on independent servers instead of servers owned by the company—CEO Jay Graber wrote in a blog post last month users can create their own servers and switch without losing their data—and users will have more power to choose the algorithms that control what posts they see.
Users can like or repost “skeets” on their “skyline” (comparable to tweets on a Twitter user’s timeline), though the platform currently doesn’t support direct messaging or hashtags.
Bluesky is capturing online buzz as Twitter users express frustration with changes Musk has made to the platform, but the app has been in the works for years: Dorsey co-founded the project while still at Twitter in 2019, originally intending the project to be compatible with Twitter and help users move their accounts and messages across competing social networks, but Bluesky became its own separate company in 2022 (before the Musk acquisition).
Dorsey serves on Bluesky’s board, but the company is led by Graber, who clarified in a tweet last week: “Jack [Dorsey] is on our board but Jack does not own us, Twitter does not own us.”
While Musk’s Twitter has come under criticism for loosening content moderation guidelines, Bluesky plans on allowing users to create their own content moderation guidelines and subscribe to those created by others, and current options include an opt-in or opt-out approach to viewing violent or hateful content.
Some of Bluesky’s most famous users include Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who has long been a prolific tweeter but in recent days has interacted with fellow Bluesky users and praised the platform for lacking the hateful trolls that typically flood her tweets—Ocasio-Cortez is also still active on Twitter.
Chrissy Teigen tweeted a link to her Bluesky profile on Thursday, the same day Bluesky said it had its biggest jump in new users, a twofold increase from the day prior (It’s reportedly been downloaded 375,000 times since February).
Other stars on Bluesky include actor Kumail Nanjiani and filmmakers Christopher McQuarrie, James Gunn and Edgar Wright.
Surprising Fact
Demand for Bluesky invitations is so high that people are auctioning them on eBay for hundreds of dollars.
Big Number
1.2 million. That’s how many people are on the Bluesky waitlist, Forbes reported last week. About 35,000 people have access to the app as of last week.
Crucial Quote
“Users will have the ability to choose, creators will have the ability to stay in touch with their audiences, and developers will have the freedom to build,” Bluesky CEO Jay Graber told Forbes in an article last week.
Key Background
Since acquiring Twitter in October, Musk—whose net worth is $172.9 billion—has made many controversial changes to the platform, frustrating some users who are turning to alternatives. Among his most infamous decisions was overhauling Twitter’s verification system, which had long been used to designate profiles of public figures like politicians, celebrities and journalists as authentic. Now, users can pay for a Twitter Blue subscription to get their own blue check, and businesses can pay $1,000/month for a Verified Organizations gold check. The change has been criticized as making authentic news harder to spot and making it easier to impersonate public figures. Musk has also loosened many of Twitter’s moderation guidelines, allowed Twitter Blue subscribers to tweet up to 10,000 characters, controversially labeled NPR and other media outlets that receive public funding as “state-affiliated,” fired thousands of employees and temporarily suspended journalists.
Chief Critic
Dorsey criticized Musk on Bluesky last week, stating Musk hadn’t “acted right” after purchasing Twitter, which went “south” under his leadership—a shift from last year, when Dorsey tweeted support of Musk’s acquisition. Dorsey has argued for years that Twitter should be part of a decentralized system for sharing content—or a “protocol”—rather than a single centralized platform that users are reliant on, a vision he attempted to win Musk over to last year. The former Twitter CEO told Musk in a 2022 text message revealed in court documents: “Twitter started as a protocol. It should have never been a company. That was the original sin.”
Tangent
Bluesky isn’t the first platform considered a potential competitor to Musk-era Twitter. Millions of people, including many journalists, joined Mastodon, also a decentralized microblogging social platform, after Musk purchased Twitter. Though Mastodon briefly surged in popularity late last year, the platform quickly dipped from 2.5 million monthly users in December to 1.4 million in late January.
Further Reading
Jack Dorsey-Backed Decentralized Twitter Rival Prepares To Launch With One Million Users (Forbes)
What is Bluesky, and why is everyone on Twitter talking about it? (Vox)
What to know about Bluesky, the Twitter alternative that some celebrities and journalists are joining (NBC News)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/conormurray/2023/05/01/what-is-bluesky-heres-what-to-know-about-ex-twitter-ceos-new-invite-only-social-network–as-these-celebrities-sign-up/