Is “I’m Moving to Bluesky” the new “I’m Moving to Canada?”
Technology Policy Brief #121 | By: Mindy Spatt | November 28, 2024
Photo by Ravi Sharma on Unsplash
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SUMMARY
Elon Musk spent the day after the election at Mar A Lago with his new best friend, Donald Trump. While he was there, 115,000 X users registered their disgust with the toxic Musk/Trump partnership by dumping the platform formerly known as Twitter. At the same time, alternate platforms Bluesky and Threads saw dramatic subscription increases.
ANALYSIS
According to Similarweb, an online analytics tool, November 6 was a peak deactivation day for X, with the biggest loss in subscribers the platform has seen since Elon Musk took it over in October 2022. At that time 200,000 accounts were deactivated.
This time the departures have a celebrity sheen, with well-known entertainment and media figures including MSNBC’s Joy Reid, Nicole Wallace, and Rachel Maddow, actress Jamie Lee Curtis, actors George Takei and Lavar Burton, musician Lizzo, and rapper Flavor Flav all making their defections public.
Media organizations are also bailing. The day after the election the Guardian announced it would no longer post on X. “This is something we have been considering for a while given the often disturbing content promoted or found on the platform, including far-right conspiracy theories and racism,” wrote the editors. “The US presidential election campaign served only to underline what we have considered for a long time: that X is a toxic media platform and that its owner, Elon Musk, has been able to use its influence to shape political discourse.”
Some of the toxic content comes directly from Musk and the rest he enabled. After taking the helm at Twitter, he dismantled efforts to monitor hate speech and misinformation. He also eliminated an entire department devoted to trust and safety, revoked bans on dangerous, extremist accounts, and eliminated account labels designed for transparency
“I’m leaving Twitter,” said famed author Stephen King. [T]he atmosphere has just become too toxic. Follow me on Threads, if you like.”
Singer Barbra Streisand posted to her X account on Nov. 14 that “effective immediately” her comments will be posted on Bluesky, adding #TwitterExodus.
The Thursday after the election Babs’s choice, Bluesky, founded by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey but only recently available to the general public, reported it had added 1 million users in a single day. Threads, Meta’s answer to X, also reported huge gains, becoming the highest-rated “free” app on the Apple Store.
Calls for a boycott are not new. Even before the election, the Ethical Consumer urged one, calling Twitter “a huge source of unaccountable political power,” that critics feared would influence the election. “Musk has posted 50 false US election claims reaching 1.2bn views, according to CCDH [Center for Countering Digital Hate], and has shared endorsements of Trump on the platform, while sharing faked videos of Kamala Harris calling herself the ultimate diversity hire,” said the organization. Also of concern were the investors who helped pay for Musk’s $44 billion buyout of Twitter, including:
- The Qatar government
- Alwaleed bin Talal, a Saudi prince
- Larry Elison, a Trump supporter and 5th richest person in the world
- Sean Combes, a rapper accused of sex trafficking and rape.
Musk’s takeover of Twitter sparked outrage and deactivations but not mass departures. Now, with Musk’s worst on display regularly and his reach vastly expanded, the exodus appears to be gaining steam, prompting Wired magazine to call “I’m moving to Bluesky” the new “I’m moving to Canada”.Elon Musk’s X is a poison. We Don’t Need to Keep Taking It,
Engagement Resources:
- Jay Michaelson, Sept. 7, 2024 (https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/elon-musk-twitter-x-collective-leaving-rcna169608)
- Journalists Are Leaving X for Bluesky. Will They Stay There?, Sarah Grevy Gotfredsen, Nov. 21, 2024, (https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/journalists_leaving_x_bluesky.php)
- Who’s boycotting Twitter/X and Tesla,? Jasmine Owens. Oct. 30, 2024 (https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/technology/boycott-twitter-campaigning)