I WISH I KNEW HOW TO QUIT YOU (X)

[Barney Reinberg]

When Donald Trump won the 2024 election, some were quick to flee.  While the financially secure have the option of fleeing the country, others are “stuck” in the US trying to find their personal escape.  Some found it with Bluesky.  A new social media app that has seen its subscribers increase at an astonishing rate.

It’s possible the increase in subscribers had to do with the Trump victory, but it could also be Elon Musk owning X and will be heading an oversight department on government spending.  But they are fleeing to what some believe will be a social media “safe space”.

What I have found is sites like X and YouTube are the adrenaline rush for social media.  If you want to get seen or heard, you need to be on one of these sites.  You need constructive criticism and push back from viewers.  An engaging audience increases the popularity of your channel.  You won’t get that on Bluesky.  Your critics will be banned for “wrong think”.  You will always be right, but your channel will never grow.  At least that’s what I think.

But I could be wrong.  So, I enlisted the help of an individual (Rose C) to perform a case study on Bluesky.  Is it the “safe space” subscribers believe it to be?

Bluesky: A "Safe Space" or Just Another Platform?

Jack Dorsey recently launched the Decentralized social media platform Bluesky, which received many user applications. This spike is unsurprising, as users transition directly from the U.S. elections to X (formerly Twitter) in search of a less random, and thus less-defecated, digital environment. However, is Bluesky the 'safe space' people look forward to or yet another app with its difficulties?

Why Users Are Flocking to Bluesky

Most of the migration can be traced to dissatisfaction with the existing environment at X with Elon Musk at the helm. Some concerns mentioned include enhanced polarization and free-for-all negativity, interpretations of which are favored by social media algorithms. To some, Bluesky represents hope—a chance to start from scratch with the new app trusted to be decentralized, transparent, and moderated by the community. Bluesky solution is designed in a completely different manner. It employs the AT Protocol, a method of hosting user’s data and enabling users to jump from one service to another with their social networks (Huang, 2024). Arguably, this open architecture is an inherent selling point for people who seek decentralization as a rejection of the vertically-oriented control inherent in many closed platforms, such as X.

Is Bluesky Truly a Safe Space?

Although Bluesky's decentralized model is free from corporate manipulation on paper, it does not guarantee a workplace free from harassment. It is still in its infancy; the tools for moderation are also in their beta version. This has kept all doors open at Bluesky for the similar misfortune that X faced, such as producing harmful content and the undesirable weirdos with less supervision. The concept of Bluesky as a 'safe space' also relies on the user population. Most of the new subscribers have progressive and left-leaning political affiliations because they want to be removed from X, the virile political environment it has become. However, as established in this paper, Bluesky does become more extensive and more diverse in multiple ways, and it becomes more and more of an issue as people start to bring their differences into the forum and rub against each other.

Challenges Ahead

Bluesky is still in beta, with limited capability and functionality. The infrastructure, therefore, needs to grow in response to more participants, yet the protagonist of this story is decentralization. This will make it necessary for the production process to incorporate a significant technological breakthrough. When a platform is decentralized, it becomes challenging to moderate appropriately (Sparer, 2024). Even though the community can decide what rules they want to follow within the Bluesky framework, the podcast needs proper tools to deal with fake news cases or coordinate hate speech campaigns. Free speech and user abuse and protection continue to be challenges to balance. Bluesky, as seen today, will be felt to be progressive. Hence, users from another political and ideological lane may shy away. Therefore, in its continual efforts to attain the position of being the platform for everything, Bluesky needs to find a way of being inclusive while maintaining its original audience.

Conclusion

Bluesky is an exciting experiment in creating decentralized social media; such a platform could be compared to X. However, its 'Safe Space' label might still be more of a motto than a fact. As in any social site, its environment will reflect the users, governance policy, and the capacity to address and develop with the richness of discursive culture. Suppose the company's leadership is to be believed. In that case, however, the goal of capturing and serving Chinese consumers' imaginations has not been forgotten, and whether Bluesky can deliver on the passion it has shown in pursuing its vision is yet to be determined. For now, it provides an uplifting oasis for those disappointed in X, but consumers should remember that no digital platform is immune from the problems of the digital era.

And I ran, I ran so far away
I just ran, I ran all night and day
I couldn't get away

A Flock of Seagulls

They always come back.  BR & RC

 

 

References

Huang, T. (2024). Decentralized Social Networks and the Future of Free Speech Online. arXiv preprint arXiv:2406.06934.

Sparer, J. (2024). SafeBlaze: Empowering Transgender and Gender-Nonconforming Individuals in Digital Spaces (Master's thesis, New York University Tandon School of Engineering).

 

[Willy]

I don't use any of these big social media sites but from what I have read, Bluesky is a haven for the Leftist who have their heads screwed on backwards. Some of the more prominent names on Bluesky shown below proves my point.

Mark Hamill posted on Bluesky Saturday after joining, then posted on Monday that he’s a “TwitterQuitter,” although his X account is still active and has 4.9 million followers.

The Guardian newspaper—which controls dozens of accounts on the platform that have about 27 million followers combined—announced its plans Nov. 13 to stop engaging with the platform, citing its worries about “far-right conspiracy theories” and racism, and alleging the presidential election confirmed “X is a toxic media platform and that its owner, Elon Musk, has been able to use its influence to shape political discourse.”

Journalist Don Lemon—who has more than 1.5 million followers on X and is embroiled in a lawsuit against Musk and X—posted Nov. 13 that he once considered the company a tool for “debate and discussion” but decided to leave after seeing X’s new terms of service, which only allows future legal action against the platform to be handled through the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas (seemingly a strategy by the company to remain in the hands of Texas’ conservative courts, according to reporting from The Washington Post, citing legal experts).

Author Stephen King—who has more than 7 million followers and often engaged in debates with Musk or politicians like Ted Cruz and Marjorie Taylor Greene on the platform—posted to his X account on Nov. 14 that he’s leaving, will mostly use Meta’s Threads and “tried to stay, but the atmosphere has just become too toxic.”

Director Guillermo del Toro posted to his more than 2.4 million followers on Nov. 10, saying his X account will “stay mostly unused (drop in on ocassion)” and he “will be more and more at BlueSky.”

Actress Jaime Lee Curtis, who had more than 745,000 X followers, deactivated her X account on Nov. 13 and posted a prayer on Instagram with a photo showing the deactivated profile, but she did not specify exactly why she decided to shut down her account.

Singer Barbra Streisand posted to her X account (which is still active at the time of writing) on Nov. 14 that “effective immediately” her comments will be posted on Bluesky, adding “#TwitterExodus” and a link to her new profile.

On Nov. 13, actor Ben Stiller, who is also still on Musk’s platform, posted “Hello BlueSky” to the budding platform and promoted his Bluesky account on X for his 5.3 million followers, later saying “I’m posting on BlueSky…” and “please come there too…”

Other celebrities have recently deactivated their X account or indicated they'll no longer use X: comedian Andy Richter, film director Lilly Wachowski, actress Alyssa Milano, actress Gabrielle Union, actress Yvette Nicole Brown, actor Alex Winter, journalist Joy-Ann Reid and actor Matthew Lillard.

The number of big names who are joining Bluesky or an alternative platform (but may continue using X) is also growing: actress Miranda Cosgrove, singer Lizzo, actor George Takei, director James Gunn, billionaire Mark Cuban, actor Levar Burton, journalist Rachel Maddow and rapper Flavor Flav.