Bluesky Social, a decentralized social media platform created by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, is making significant strides in challenging Twitter. Unlike other new social media apps or platforms, Bluesky is a protocol that allows different social media services to communicate and work together, promoting more innovation, diversity, and freedom online.
Bluesky aims to create a “social web” that is more open, resilient, and user-centric than current social platforms. It allows users to select their own identity providers, data storage providers, and content delivery networks, making it easy to switch between different interfaces and applications without losing data or connections. The platform supports various content formats and interactions and enables cross-platform monetization and value exchange through micropayments.
Bluesky Social is a micro-blogging social media platform that lets users create, share, like, and follow posts. The platform is distributed so that anyone can build an interface to display the data and activity flowing underneath. It is also designed to make users’ identities and information easily transferable to any other platform that supports the protocol. Bluesky Social resembles a simplified version of Twitter but without ads or commercial brands.
According to Data.ai, more than 245,000 iPhone users have downloaded Bluesky, which is currently only available on an invite-only basis. More than half of these downloads have occurred this month. The platform had previously maintained a waiting list with over a million people when Elon Musk acquired Twitter in October. Bluesky has been inviting users from this list to test its beta version since the beginning of this year, although it is currently limiting the number of users.
As more people seek an alternative to Twitter, which has been embroiled in controversy since its acquisition by Elon Musk and the blue check mark debacle, Bluesky presents a significant opportunity. Despite still being in beta, Bluesky Social has seen its user numbers more than double in recent weeks. Although community guidelines are not entirely clear, Bluesky offers a refreshing alternative to Twitter.
Bluesky’s vision for a decentralized social web that balances the needs of different stakeholders, preserves user privacy and data sovereignty, and fosters a healthy and vibrant ecosystem supporting innovation and experimentation is commendable. Bluesky Social is just one example of the type of platform that can be built using Bluesky’s protocol. While the platform’s utopian ideals may not last, it provides a hopeful glimpse into a future of more open, decentralized, and user-centric social media.
