X (formerly Twitter) users are moving towards Bluesky platform after Musk and Trump partnership
Credit:Shutterstock:Koshiro K
Since the US election and Donald Trump‘s election of Elon Musk as government efficiency leader, there has been a mass exodus of users away from social media platform X (formerly Twitter) and towards rival platform, Bluesky.
Tesla CEO ,Elon Musk has just been elected by Donald Trump to marshal a new Department of Government Efficiency (Doge). Rumours say that the ‘buddy’ pair are set to make waves and that Musk’s underdog position may likely be bumped up to a ‘top dog’ position if the tech wizard manages to deliver his promise for government spending cuts before the deadline of American Independence Day, July 4 2026. Musk can also sit comfortably knowing that the name of his own department is a subtle tribute to his own cryptocurrency Dogecoin prompting its value to soar post-election.
However, there’s a catch. With every climb, there’s a fall and it would seem that Musk may be nearing the edge of the cliff with his 2022 lovechild – social media platform, X (formerly Twitter).
Musk’s ties with Trump could be responsible for 115,000 users leaving X
In a nutshell, Elon Musk’s relationship with Donald Trump is deterring some users away from X. Reminded of the early days of Twitter, (replete with hate speech and advertisements), some journalists and left-wing politicians and celebrities have expressed their newfound preference to stay away from such social media. Dr. Shannon McGregor at the University of North Carolina sums the reasons up nicely: ‘You were getting this awful timeline of far-right, white supremacist, conspiracy theory posts — which the great majority of people don’t want to interact with on a daily basis.’
Over a million users have now abandoned X to follow Bluesky
The consequence of this uncomfortable sentiment among X users has been a mass exodus away from the platform. And in a cruel twist of fortune, the same mass exodus is seeking refuge in Bluesky, the alternative social media platform and brainchild of ex-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. Gaining over a million users since the US election to add to its 15 million followers is certainly going to take the smug smile off Musk’s face – especially when at the same time, over 115,000 people have left X, including celebrities Don Lemon and Jamie Lee Curtis. Ex-CNN anchor Lemon said he felt X was no longer a place for ‘honest debate and discussion.’ This stem’s from Musk’s decision that all lawsuits filed against X be debated in Texas rather than San Francisco, a move likely to stir controversy due to the obvious conservative backing and protection from litigation to be found in Texas.
The Guardian newspaper is also following suit, refusing to post on X due to ‘far right conspiracy theories and racism’ on the site.
Bluesky is similar to X platform but without apparent ‘far-right activism’
But, what exactly is Bluesky? In simple terms, it is a social media platform launched in October 2021, which only opened to the public this year. It closely resembles X in its discover and chronological feeds for users, direct messaging tools and pin posts. The rival platform to X became popular with Brazilians in August when X was banned but has now taken force in the US due to its absence of far-right activism, misinformation and hate speech, which is now rife on X, according to ex-followers of Musk’s platform.
Musk responded to these claims nonchalantly, referring to X’s leading coverage of the US election and a record 942 million posts worldwide.
It remains to be seen how the two social media platforms will fare as they go head to head amid political tensions and changing loyalties.
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