“It’s official! 1,000,000 people have joined Bluesky in the last day alone!“. The platform celebrated with this message the arrival of hundreds of thousands of users, almost all of them dissatisfied with the “toxicity” and the spiral of violence and misinformation that permeate X – previously, Twitter. Bluesky is a social network of microbloggingwith a decentralized base and similar, precisely, to the old Twitter. The operation of both platforms is almost the same, in fact, they share origins. The application was born in 2019, but has gained weight in recent days – specifically, between 600 and 800 new registrations per minutethe majority in the United States. Users have begun to change the bird for the butterfly; black, for a sky blue that promises to “foster dialogue” and “fight against abuse on social networks.” What explains the rise of Bluesky?
The victory of donald trump in the US elections it has been “key to the transfer of users,” acknowledge the experts consulted by this newspaper. “It is a turning point, it is clear. The latest study on the Twitter algorithm focuses on biases and intervention [de Elon Musk] for amplify and enhance Trump-related content. This has caused a cascade of small actions that have managed to move the board a little…” suggests Raúl Magallón Rosa, professor of Communication at UC3M and expert in disinformation and fact-checking. The South African tycoon put the platform at the service of Donald Trump; Furthermore, he contributed 200 million dollars to his campaign. This week we learned the prize: Musk will be the new head of the Department of Government Efficiencywhich will be in charge of applying “drastic” reforms in public spending.
“The platform [X] has become increasingly hostile; now it works directly like a branch of the most reactionary government the United States has ever had so far this century. The fact that institutions and figures with a certain reach decide to boycott it, to go on strike – which is how we should understand this flight, because We all generate profit for the company based on our presence and interactions – gives more credibility to the exodus, which, on the other hand, has been happening for some time,” they point out from UNA Projecta collective focused on unmasking new forms of fascism that has just published the book The virality of evil. In recent days, media such as Guardian either The Vanguard They have abandoned the platform as a “form of protest”, arguing that, since Musk’s arrival, it had mutated into a “disinformation network.”
Bluesky is still far from the 335 million active users that X supposedly has, but Its growth reflects massive discontent with Musk’s decisions and the alignment of the platform with the extreme right. “The networks have to give their permission so that researchers can monitor disinformation campaigns. Transparency is always important. The first impressions are good, but we have to wait and see if this platform will work as an echo chamber or will have differential value. What will users look for on Bluesky and what will they offer? This will allow us to more carefully assess digital migrations,” says Raúl Magallón Rosa.
What is Bluesky and how does it work?
Bluesky was born in 2019 as a kind of test within Twitter itself. The idea was that any user could build custom algorithmscontent filters and even moderation rules without the intervention of the parent company. “Musk has done just the opposite: promote non-moderation policies and twist the few options that users had to protect ourselves, such as the lock button. The consequences have led to this toxic and violent environment that characterizes X. Bluesky seems to have more robust measures, For example, if you block another user, you are not supposed to find them again. We will have to see to what extent it works…”, he warns. Marcelino Madrigaljournalist expert in cybersecurity and networks.
Jack Dorsey, founder of Twitter, launched the “experiment” when he was still at the head of the platform. The businessman had been observing for some time the power that investors had in decision making – a power that affected the user experience – and was in favor of moving towards a decentralized technology basewithout a single algorithm. “This means that it bases its operation on a software, a set of servers that people can sign up for, grouping by segments according to their interestsoccupations and even their geographical location,” says Mariluz Congosto, computer scientist and researcher in social networks at the Carlos III University of Madrid.
Bluesky became independent from Twitter in 2021, but received financial support until Elon Musk bought the company. The South African tycoon cut ties with the butterfly social networkwhich now has 16.1 million users. The platform is in the hands of its CEO, Jay Graberengineer software and expert in non-centralized technologies. “Networks are made by people, we cannot forget that. The disinformation industry has not yet landed on Blueskybut we will see what happens when there is a lot of population, because there is a risk of falling into the same vices,” insists Congosto.
The differences between X and Bluesky
The interface and basic functions of the two platforms are quite similar, which, according to experts, makes it easier for new users to adapt. Bluesky offers a feed chronological and without predefined algorithms; Each person will be able to decide how they interact with the rest of the profiles. “The algorithm will be public, it will not rely on the interests of third parties. Users will be able to choose what they want to see, they will have more control. This was impossible in X, you had messages from Elon Musk even in the soup…”, recalls Marcelino Madrigal. The application also has no advertising, can recommend other accounts and promises to be more respectful of users’ privacy. As a handicap, still lacks features like hashtags and uploading videos.
Bluesky will also allow you to easily extract your data and take it to another platform. This means that Users will be able to maintain their network of contacts if the company changes servers, something completely unfeasible in other spaces, such as X, Instagram or TikTok. “The goal is to give developers the freedom to build and users the right to leave. “The ability for people to host their own data means that users always have other alternatives, and that their experience doesn’t have to come only from us,” he explained. Jay Graber CEO of the firm.
The fact that the platform does not impose any algorithm allows us to build – for the moment – a kind of barrier against bots and misinformation. Experts, however, still have doubts about its staging. Marta G. Francojournalist and author of The networks are oursexplains the reason for his skepticism: “Bluesky has received more people because it offers an experience that is reminiscent of the old Twitter: real people talking and, for now, little presence of toxic messages. What happens is that behind it we have a for-profit company and capital investors, who are developing their own protocol. It is true that they promise to release it, but in the history of Silicon Valley there are so many examples of companies that start with rhetoric open source and then they give in to pressure from their investors…”, he concludes.
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