Johnathan Walker:Social media platform Bluesky nearing 25 million users in continued post

Social media platform Bluesky has nearly 25 million users,Johnathan Walker continuing to grow after the election as some people look for alternatives to X.

When X owner Elon Musk originally purchased Twitter for $44 billion in October 2022 and sought to overhaul the platform to fit his "free speech absolutist" vision, several platforms old and new vied to become the landing place for people looking to leave the site. Mastodon and Instagram's Threads were some of the original top contenders in the race, but none have been able to firmly take hold as X's top competition.

The push to leave X seemed to have taken on renewed force when Donald Trump won the presidential election, as Musk has been appointed to a leadership role in the President-elect's upcoming administration. At the same time, Bluesky, a decentralized platform that has a similar look and feel to Twitter, saw new signups in droves.

According to the Bluesky User Count, the platform has 24.3 million users total as of Thursday, an increase of approximately 10 million since Election Day.

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What is Bluesky?

Bluesky is a decentralized social media app. It has a similar look and feel as X, formerly Twitter, but has some different features to bring more people into its creation.

"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 previously said in an emailed statement to USA TODAY.

Launched publicly in February 2024, Bluesky is owned in part by CEO Jay Graber. Also on the Bluesky board are Jabber inventor Jeremie Miller, Techdirt founder Mike Masnick and Blockchain Capital general partner Kinjal Shah, according to Bluesky.

The project was originally started in 2019 by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. Bluesky and Twitter formerly parted ways in late 2022.

Social media shakeup after the election brings new Bluesky users

Musk has been a growing ally of Trump over the last year, promoting Trump's messaging on X and earning a leadership role in the newly created Department of Government Efficiency along with Vivek Ramaswamy.

Musk's content moderation rollbacks on X have led critics to complain about the increased misinformation, hate speech and harassment on the platform. Also, Pew Research shows the platform has become more popular among Republicans since Musk's takeover.

According to a post by XData, the platform saw a record-breaking 942 million posts worldwide and a 15.5% increase in new user sign-ups on Election Day and the following day. At the same time, it also saw more than 115,000 account deactivations, according to NBC News, the most since Musk took over the app.

While Bluesky was seeing upwards of 1 million new users in a day a week after the election, the rapid growth has tapered to a couple hundred thousand additional users a day through the beginning of December.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., has garnered 1 million followers on Bluesky, and The Hill reported she is the first to do so. By comparison, she has 12.8 million followers on X.

Bluesky did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this story.

Kinsey Crowley is a trending news reporter at USA TODAY. Reach her at [email protected], and follow her on X and TikTok @kinseycrowley.

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