It happened with Mastodon, and now with Bluesky. The social network X (formerly Twitter) there is a new exodus of userssomething that is becoming common since Elon Musk bought the company for $44 billion. A value that, since then, has fallen by more than 70%.
And why now? There are several reasons that seem to have pushed users to abandon Musk’s business adventure, whose promises at the beginning turned into macabre premonitions. While the businessman boasted that with his arrival on the social network the bots would disappear and the space would be democratized, the truth is that the opposite has happened. “It is a social network in decline“, with Musk’s policies, it has been degenerating and losing quality,” journalist and veteran user Marcelino Madrigal pointed out to Public.
Since Musk’s arrival, a simple sweep of the social network reveals that there are more bots than ever. When the devastating DANA occurred in Valencia, a hundred accounts from India appeared in publications related to the topic to launch hate messages.
And the social network has become a nest of hate, where blocking protocols have recently been modified, since now blocked users can continue to see the publications of those who have restricted them, even if they cannot interact with them. Something that, according to users, presents a major privacy problem. “This comes from the concept of freedom of expression in the US, where even hate speech is defended, unlike in Europe. “Musk is only interested in the US market, users in Spain are residual.”the journalist has pointed out.
In this new X far-right accounts run rampant, Accounts dedicated to reporting on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza see their reach limited or even disappear, and journalist profiles are regularly hacked.
Journalism has been one of the spearheads of this new exodus of X. Media such as Guardian either The Vanguard They have already made the decision to leave due to the “toxicity” that permeates the social network. “Twitter had always been a social network for journalists, but Musk only likes those of his kind. It has become a propaganda apparatus for the far right,” said Madrigal.
Social networks in general, X in particular, have become a dangerous hoax amplifier. In fact, Elon Musk’s platform is the social network that misinforms the most, according to a report prepared by the European Commission last year.
These issues have been going on for a long time, but they have increased in recent months with the United States election campaign. Musk, owner of X, joined Donald Trump’s team, first as a speaker, then as a collaborator and now as a member of the US president-elect’s cabinet. “Musk uses the social network as a propaganda tool for his companies and his ideology. And with him in the Trump Government, X will be just another propaganda device,” Madrigal added.
That the owner of the social network uses it as Trump’s electoral weapon to influence the outcome of the election It is something that has pushed users, especially from this territory, to explore other options.
What are those other options?
Other options have tried to position themselves as the alternative to X. Meta launched Threadsa social network quite similar in operation to the renowned Twitter. The question raised by this platform is whether an application from the Facebook conglomerate, which has traditionally engaged in the same practices as X, is the solution to the problems.
The big protagonist these days is Bluesky, which has reported great growth in new users. This social network is owned by Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of the former Twitter.
The journalist and writer Ekaitz Cancela has reflected on this question in his X account. “Go to Bluesky, founded by a cryptolibertarian [Jack Dorsey], is to fall into the neoliberal logic from which we seek to escape: “Market competition can save us and improve digital interactions, reinforcing the myth of the sovereign individual and the absence of social institutions.”
This platform is presented as an alternative to X, with decentralized servers, which can only be accessed by invitation and where publications can be kept private to the network of followers. “It offers tools that cover the shortcomings of X. It has had controlled growth and they have a clear path,” said Madrigal of this platform, of which he has been a user since its beta phase and which he has defined as a “refuge of progressivism”, at least for now.
This decentralized server system is similar to the one Mastodon uses, the social network that starred in the first great exodus from X (when it was still Twitter) after the entry of Elon Musk. Although the arrival of users to this platform has been increasing, active profiles have fallen considerably since this first attempt to abandon the billionaire’s ship. Although the truth is that since the tycoon bought the little bird, Mastodon users grew by more than four million, around double.
What does the future hold?
The question raised by this new flight of users from X is whether it is a seasonal march, as has already happened on other occasions and the waters will calm down, or we are talking about the beginning of the end of X. “We must reflect on why we are on social networks. If it is leisure and entertainment, no one goes to a bar to be beaten,” Madrigal pointed out.
For now, the user march has reopened the debate about whether users want to stop being consumers and what levels of transparency are expected from these spaces. “Social networks are nothing without their users”the journalist has concluded.
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