The Bluesky Social Platform
A Tale of Two Socials
Blue Sky is a social media service started as an in-house division at Twitter in 2019. Ironically, it was created by Elon Musk as well as other founders as a way to have a more open experience for users. However, Bluesky became an independent company, offering itself as an alternative to a Musk-led Twitter as they broke connections soon after Musk acquired Twitter. In 2023 and 2024, Bluesky was offered only as an invitation-only model; from February 2024 onward, anyone who wanted could join. The main tone of the platform is liberal and left-leaning.
Blue Sky is meant to be an example of what social networks should be; the main concepts are that users should be able to identify who they are dealing with and to be able to find a set of compatible followers using a smart algorithm.
What is Bluesky
Who is Bluesky
History
Who Posts
An Overview
Compare
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Call to Action
Bluesky
What is Bluesky?
Bluesky was developed as a reference implementation of the AT Protocol, an open communication protocol for distributed social networks. Bluesky Social promotes a composable user experience and algorithmic choice as core features of Bluesky. The platform offers a “marketplace of algorithms” where users can choose or create algorithmic feeds, user-managed moderation and labelling services, and user-made “starter packs” that allow users to quickly follow a large number of related accounts within a community or subculture. Wikipedia article on Bluesky
In Practical Terms
- The goal was to allow social networks to communicate with each other
- Users can create their own communities and fit the experience to their own desired setting
- Communities could build quickly and richly
Blue sky is owned by Bluesky Social PBC, a benefit corporation.
Who is Bluesky
- Begun by Jack Dorsey, the then Ceo of Twitter, as a research offshoot within Twitter
- Bluesky is a public benefit company; it is for profit, but not obligated to benefit shareholders
- At the time, social media was being accused of both being a haven of hate speech and stifling freedom of speech.
- Elon Musk proposed that by decentralizing social media, they could address the above problem.
By Gage Skidmore –
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History of Bluesky
- First, an offshoot of Twitter in 2019 until fully independent in 2021
- Soon after Musk purchased Twitter, Bluesky and Twitter (X) parted ways
- Beta/Invitation only/Public
- Growth trends
Who Posts on Bluesky
- Liberals
- Left Wing Leaning Groups
- Creatives
- Scientists
- Those who prefer to have more control over their feed
March 4 screenshot of live Bluesky user count.
A Comparison of Two Social Feeds
A Tale of Two Socials
Why Does it Matter?
I’m less interested in how people are following each other and more interested in how they are following topics and tweets themselves. People are following more key words and concepts and more ideas and acting on those rather than individuals or organizations.
Social media, interconnections, AI; there is a whole new world out there, and those who control the message will control and shape the future. In my opinion, if we want a world that models kindness and goodness, then controlling our machines is the most important decision of our lives and our progenies. I still believe that the vast majority of people would prefer not to have their feeds filled with morally objectionable content, and have resigned themselves to living with it. People should have control and that is the beauty of sites like Blue sky.