What is Bluesky? The social platform experiencing an influx of users after Trump's victory
Words by ITV News Trainee Sasha Kay
Around one million people have joined the social media platform Bluesky in the week since Donald Trump's US election win and X owner Elon Musk's cabinet appointment.
The site is understood to have doubled its users in the past few months - now boasting more than 16 million - and has even experienced an outage this week as it battled to contend with rising demand.
But what is it - and why are people signing up?
What is Bluesky?
It's a fairly new social media platform, started in 2019 by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.
Dorsey wanted to create an “open and decentralised standard for social media”.
It launched as a platform in 2021 and has become a popular refuge for people leaving X - formerly known as Twitter -after Tesla boss Elon Musk took over in 2022.
The platform looks very similar to X, with a vertical thread of posts split into 'discover' and 'following' feeds.
How does it compare to X?
Bluesky offers users to 'moderate' their experience more than X.
Users can choose their own custom algorithms based on what they want to see - anything from local politics to cat photos.
“We aim to replace the conventional ‘master algorithm’, controlled by a single company, with an open and diverse ‘marketplace of algorithms’,” the platform says.
Bluesky has also made a point of differing from X's verification system. Musk made X's 'blue tick' available to buy, but Bluesky encourages members to have a website address in their handle (for example, their company address) in order to verify their profile, rather than buying a 'tick'.
Bluesky also boasts what it calls "anti-toxicity" features. These include detaching an original post from someone else's quote post, allowing users to opt out of unwanted interactions.
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Why are people leaving X?
Billionaire Elon Musk bought then-named Twitter in 2022 with the help of several investors, including the Qatari government and Sean "Diddy" Combes, the rapper accused of multiple sex offences.
There were a string of departures at the time of Musk's takeover including Elton John and Whoopi Goldberg - and this week more public accounts announced they were leaving the platform.
The Guardian newspaper quit the site this week, accusing X of being a "toxic media platform," with Musk "able to use its influence to shape political discourse".
Musk was announced as the leader of a new "Department of Government Efficiency" in Trump's cabinet on Wednesday, after his robust support of the Republican campaign on X and beyond.
The X owner has come under scrutiny for his conduct on the site since its purchase.
Musk has been accused of engaging in misleading content and spreading misinformation.
X users have also complained of a surge of bots and AI-generated content on the site, making it difficult to navigate.
Who's left X - and who's joined Bluesky?
Bluesky now boasts more than 16 million users.
Hollywood actress Jamie Lee Curtis has spoken about her move from X to Bluesky. She shared a screenshot of her X account deactivated and posted the phrase "#WeDontNeedX".
Several MPs have made the same move, including Jess Phillips, Layla Moran and Mother of the House Diane Abbott.
Phillips’ first post to the platform read: “Let’s try not to mess this up".
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