What is Bluesky, the 'up-and-coming' social platform seen as X alternative

Bluesky, a new social platform garnering millions of users, is now competing with top networks like X and Truth Social.

Jack Dorsey, a former CEO at Twitter, created the site in 2019 to be “a protocol for public conversation.” Its features are modeled after Twitter and include the option to message other users in addition to a discover and feed tab.

One of Dorsey’s goals is to make Bluesky interoperable so that account holders can interact with users on other platforms like TikTok or X, according to the Associated Press. 

The site has already made massive gains in terms of popularity, amassing new users after the 2024 election when it surged to 15 million users, as reported by AP. 

The company acquired a Brazilian base of over 2 million in August after the country banned X. 

Elon Musk's new policies drove 500,000 new users to join Bluesky after X signaled that blocked accounts would be able to see a user’s public posts.

Journalists have flocked to the platform in recent weeks due to its connectivity and audience-friendly model.

“My average post that isn’t a hot-button issue or isn’t trending might not perform as well on X as it does on Bluesky,” Phil Lewis, a senior front page editor at HuffPost told NBC News.

He has hundreds of thousands of followers on X and Bluesky. 

“Judging by retweets, likes and comments, it’s a world of difference.” 

Other outlets like The Guardian have reported similar trends. Left-wing politicians have also flocked to the site, which has a 300-character limit.

“Twitter has always had its problems but over the last year or so, it has become a more toxic place, it certainly minimizes progressive voices, it has become a conservative ethosphere and I see that trend continuing,” Democratic strategist Rodell Mollineau previously told The Hill.  

Many have said the social platform provides a new place to receive information.

“What I think has changed over the last 10 years … it used to be really two major platforms, Twitter and Facebook, and that sort of dominated the social media ecology,” Erik Nisbet, the director of the Center for Communication and Public Policy at Northwestern, also previously told The Hill.

“But we have moved to a much more fractured, much more diverse social media ecology, not only with the rise of TikTok [and] the rise of Instagram among younger people, these alt tech like Rumble as an alternative to YouTube, you have Gab … Discord.”