Bluesky is taking off! The social network believed to be X (Twitter’s) direct competitor is getting a huge boost as millions of new users join, including some big names from Hollywood.
This shift comes after the US election and in the wake of looming terms of service change on X, as Elon Musk secures a major appointment in Trump’s cabinet. While Bluesky’s new growth spurt is exciting, it’s also causing some glitches, with users reporting outages with over 16 million users now on board.
Bluesky down, users report outages
On November 14, Bluesky, the microblogging platform owned by Jay Graber, shot to the top of the App Store rankings, as reported by Business Insider. The platform shared that it welcomed one million new users just this week, and by Wednesday, the total user count had reached 15 million.
On Thursday, thousands of users reported issues with the app and website on Downdetector, just when Bluesky surpassed 16 million users, according to a live tracker by Jaz, a Bluesky employee.
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While Musk’s X platform boasts an estimated 317 million users, Bluesky’s user base is still relatively small. However, it is steadily growing as many Hollywood celebrities and users move away from Musk’s platform, especially after Donald Trump secured a second term in the White House.
Musk, a major Trump donor and now a key member of the DOGE initiative, has been working with Trump, who has said that DOGE will “pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies.”
Hollywood elites leave X for Bluesky
American television journalist Don Lemon shared that he is leaving Musk-owned X, explaining in a short video posted on Wednesday, “I once believed it was a place for honest debate, discussion, transparency, and free speech. But now, I feel it no longer serves that purpose.”
Other notable figures, including Jamie Lee Curtis, Elton John, Mia Farrow, and Whoopi Goldberg, have also decided to part ways with the platform. Rapper Lizzo chimed in, saying, “Anyways, I joined Bluesky because we’re leaving toxicity in 2024.”
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Bluesky was originally created as a research project by Jack Dorsey in 2019 with the goal of decentralizing Twitter, according to Forbes. With many features similar to X, it allows users to create their own servers to store data and set their own rules, instead of relying on company-owned servers. It officially launched as its own company in 2021 and opened to the public in 2023 in a beta version.
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