After the US presidential elections, the swiftiesthe name by which Taylor Swift fans are known, fled from X towards Bluesky. Billionaire Elon Musk, owner of X, was one of Donald Trump’s biggest backers: contributing more than $100 million to America PAC. Musk also helped Trump reach a clearly right-wing male audience. The swiftieswho have built a strong community on the platform formerly known as Twitter, noticed this. On Thursday, less than 48 hours after Trump won the presidency, they began leaving the platform for good.
A definitive goodbye
“I love the idea of building a new community here and would love to not have to support Elon in any way,” says Justin, who goes by @justin-the-baron.swifties.social on Bluesky and asked to use only his first name. battery for fear of harassment. “Elon is a big Trump supporter, which does not align with Taylor’s values or the values of the swifties“.
Although there are swifties On all sides of the political spectrum, the community prides itself on being a positive and accepting space. Following the announcement of Kamala Harris as the Democratic candidate for president, the swifties They began to mobilize to support her. In September, Swift herself endorsed Harris. In a post Instagram post in which she announced her support, Swift cited artificial intelligence-generated images of herself and her fans that had been used by Trump to imply that she had supported him.
Following the support, Musk posted: “Okay Taylor… you win… I’ll give you a child and protect your cats with my life.” Musk, who has repeatedly shared his concerns about declining birth rates, has 11 children with at least three women. According to The New York Times, He also offered his sperm to Nicole Shanahan, former running mate of independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. She declined.
Irene Kim, organizer of ‘Swifties for Kamala‘, claims that the avalanche of misogyny that followed the election pushed her and many other Swift fans to abandon X and seek refuge in Bluesky. Although research has found that hate speech and misinformation increased after Musk took over the platform, Trump’s election appears to have supercharged it. A report from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue found that in the 24 hours following Trump’s election victory, phrases like “Your body, my choice,” which parrot the election night rhetoric of white supremacist Nick Fuentes, increased by 4,600% in X.
A disinformation campaign led by a group linked to the Russian military intelligence service uses images of celebrities such as Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Kim Kardashian, Justin Bieber and Oprah to attack Ukraine on social media.
A decision driven by hate speech
“I think that’s the kind of rhetoric we want to get away from,” Kim says. He also notes that in hell.” Although Justin says he’s been on Bluesky for over a year, until this week he was mostly using X: “After the election, the scene was full of swifties receiving direct messages from Trump supporters, threatening rape or sexual assault and making sexually violent comments, gloating that Trump had won.”
However, at Bluesky, both Justin and Kim say they have noticed a tangible difference, feeling safer and supported by the community itself. “The swifties are here and I, for one, welcome our new members,” one user posted. “Bluesky literally feels like a social media app again, where I’m just connecting with my community or liking other interesting posts. People are not interested in fighting with you,” says Kim. In the last 48 hours he has encouraged people to migrate from X to Bluesky: “Who knows if the mobilization will continue and everything will really be moved. But right now it seems like a breath of fresh air.”
At the time of writing these lines, there are almost 200 starter packs Swift Themes – Collections of accounts that Bluesky users can follow. Almost all of them have been created in the last 24 hours. “If one day I don’t open X again because all the Swifties are on Bluesky, I’ll consider that a huge win,” Justin concludes.
Article originally published in WIRED. Adapted by Alondra Flores.
#Taylor #Swift #fans #leaving #Bluesky #Trumps #election
