Bluesky, a social media platform, has experienced a surge in new accounts following the election.
President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House has secured a place for Elon Musk, the founder of the social media site X, on Trump’s newly founded Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.
When Musk purchased Twitter, which he later rebranded as X, a slew of other social media networks competed to be the alternative to the popular short-form messaging service as he reduced content moderation.
None of them took over, but as Musk prepares to be Trump’s ally throughout his presidency, Bluesky is experiencing an influx of new users. Here’s what you should know.
What is Bluesky?
Bluesky is a decentralized social media app. It has a similar appearance and feel to X, formerly Twitter, but with several additional capabilities to engage more people in its construction.
“Unlike other closed platforms, Bluesky is an open social network that gives users choice, developers the freedom to build, and creators independence from platforms,” spokesperson Emily Liu told USA TODAY via email.
It went public in February 2024.
Who owns Bluesky?
Bluesky is partially owned by CEO Jay Graber. According to Bluesky, other board members include Jabber inventor Jeremie Miller, Techdirt founder Mike Masnick, and Blockchain Capital general partner Kinjal Shah.
Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey initiated the initiative in 2019. Bluesky and Twitter already parted ways in late 2022.
Bluesky added 2.5 million new users in the last week.
Liu said Thursday that the app has received around 2.5 million new signups in the last week. The tracker bcounter.nat.vg said that there were more than 20 million users on the network as of Tuesday.
She also stated that the platform is experiencing record activity in all indicators of interaction, including likes and follows.
Users have also reported that they receive more involvement (and higher-quality engagement) on Bluesky than on other platforms, despite having more followers elsewhere,” she added. “And most importantly, that they’re having fun!”
X had its Own Election Day Spike, Despite the Departure
X did not immediately answer USA TODAY’s request for the most recent user counts.
However, according to a post by XData, the site saw a record-breaking 942 million postings globally and a 15.5% rise in new user sign-ups on Election Day and the following day.
At the same time, NBC News reports that more than 115,000 accounts were deactivated, the most since Musk took over the service.
