Neither Mastodon nor Reddit, this is BlueSky, the social networking alternative to X that many users are migrating to

The re-election of Donald Trump as the new president of the United States in November 2024 has led to a massive exodus of users from X, the social network owned by Elon Musk and formerly known as Twitter. This digital exodus is greatly benefiting its direct competitor, BlueSky, a platform very similar in concept to Twitter and created by Jack Dorsey, one of the founders of the social network that Musk acquired. Among its many virtues are a healthier overall environment, rigorous measures to combat cyberbullying and less political polarization. For this reason, it has been postulated as an increasingly obvious alternative for those users who want to avoid conflict, and reminiscent of Twitter at the beginning of the last decade.

Massive exodus of X users to BlueSky: what is the new digital exodus?

Since the middle of the last decade, it has become clear that social media such as X (formerly Twitter) or Facebook are a very powerful information tool, capable of influencing the thinking and behavior of the masses. This made them susceptible to the spread of hoaxes and so-called fake news, deliberately created to inflame public opinion and further polarize Western societies. Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter for $44 billion and its subsequent renaming to X did not improve the situation; on the contrary. After the transaction in 2022, this platform has seen a proliferation of hoaxes, hate speech, cyberbullying, bots, scams, and, in short, disruptions so widespread and varied that they make it difficult for users to browse in a healthy and calm manner.

One of the most controversial measures taken by Musk to right the ship and avoid serious losses was the verification and monetization of paid accounts, partly to mitigate the general departure of several major advertisers. This new source of revenue is still not enough for Elon Musk, who continues to boast about the progress of his platform. Since then, almost every new measure implemented by Entrepreneur X has benefited BlueSky, its main competitor. A clear example of this was the change to the blocking feature on X in October 2024, which allowed people who had been blocked to see the profiles and posts of the users who had blocked them. This change led to an immediate spike in users on BlueSky, where half a million new registrations were recorded on the same day. Trump’s re-election as US President seems to have been the straw that broke the camel’s back for many, as Bluesky set a new record with more than a million new users in a single day, according to The Guardian.

This new social network founded by Jack Dorsey, the creator of Twitter, is experiencing extraordinary growth. In September 2024, it was estimated that its total users were around nine million, but now the number is up to fifteen million registered accounts, a growth of 66% in just two months. These numbers are still very modest compared to those of X; the latest official figures spoke of 544 million accounts, but it is not known how many of these are active users. In any case, the trend is clear: with an increasingly hostile environment on X, many users, especially those with a leftist or progressive ideology, choose to migrate to BlueSky in order to avoid witnessing or participating in discussions or other uncomfortable situations, given the enormous political polarization of Elon Musk’s platform.

This polarization has also provoked an exodus of journalists, information professionals and news agencies, who have also decided to reduce or eliminate their presence on this platform. The main reason is the increasing difficulty of verifying information in an environment saturated with fake news and characterized by an ever-increasing political polarization, factors that greatly hinder the work of information. This has led news agencies such as the American NPR to decide to completely abandon X in order to protect their credibility and journalistic rigor. BlueSky has thus established itself as the new “promised land” for these professionals who are looking for a safer and more respectful space in which to share verified information.

The long-term viability of BlueSky as a platform that takes up the baton from Twitter in the early 2010s will depend on how seriously it takes the moderation of users and published content. For now, this new social network has useful features such as the ability to prevent our publications from being quoted to avoid unwanted attention, and moderators who act almost immediately on complaints of community rules violations such as insulting or harassing other users. These tools, available to everyone, have made browsing BlueSky a much friendlier experience compared to everyday life on X.