Following the controversial changes made by tech billionaire Elon Musk to microblogging site Twitter, its former CEO Jack Dorsey has launched Bluesky for those who miss the old platform.
As soon as the app opens and the option to create an account is clicked, it says: “This is the company that keeps you online”.
Bluesky was launched on iOS in February and on Android this month.
Its system is run on a decentralized network that gives users more control over the operation of the service, giving users more control over data storage and content moderation.
Recently Dorsey’s bluesky drew attention from Democrats Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Chrissy Teigen, among others.
Find out what this new platform from Jack Dorsey is all about.
What is Bluesky?
It is a new social network for microblogging, similar to Twitter, in which its users post a variety of updates on their timelines. However, in the new app, there are no hashtags or options to send direct messages to other users.
Bluesky was created independently of Twitter when Jack Dorsey was its CEO. However, it was funded by the company until it became independent in February last year.
Dorsey laid out the idea in a tweet back in 2019, saying it also plans to “build an open community around it, including companies. [and] Institutions, researchers, civil society leaders. Still, he warned, “It’s not going to happen overnight.”
Dorsey said last year: “The biggest issue and my biggest regret is this [Twitter] became a company.”
He later clarified that “if a service were a protocol, it could not be owned by a state or company.”
Is Twitter facing an exodus?
People looking for alternatives to Twitter are frustrated by the decisions of its CEO Elon Musk, who bought it last year for $44 billion.
Over the course of six months, Elon Musk decided to make several controversial changes, such as blue ticks from prominent figures, stoking fears of misinformation and fake news.
Following Musk’s new direction, some notable public figures are choosing Bluesky.
Data.AI Bluesky has been reported to have been downloaded over 375,000 times from the Apple App Store and the waiting list is full of signup requests.
The download count on Google Play can be seen over 100,000 times.
It remains to be seen how Bluesky will maintain its presence and not be eclipsed as Mastodon – a similar platform gained attention last year.
The initial shift toward Bluesky is a positive one, because it gives social media users more choices about where they spend their time, said Mark Bartholomew, a professor at the University at Buffalo School of Law who writes about online privacy.
“Competition can actually help consumers find the product features they want, such as greater privacy protections, portability, and more important content moderation,” Bartholomew added.
“Social media platforms have features that users dislike but still feel they have to accept them just for being in the online space where everyone else is,” he said.
He also noted that people went to Bluesky because Musk forced them to “distort their platform.”
