- X’s announcement that the block function will fundamentally change has users jumping ship, again.
- At the weekend Bluesky reported that it had welcomed 1.2 million users to its ranks in just three days.
- This should concern X especially as Japan – one of its premier markets – is warming to Bluesky.
Big changes are on the agenda for X and users aren’t too happy with those changes. Last week, after Elon Musk threatened for months to change how blocking works (likely because he is blocked by so many people) X announced it was pulling the trigger.
Once the change is enacted, users on X won’t really be blocked. While users you have blocked won’t be able to engage with your posts, they will still be able to see them. But wait, that’s not all.
From 15th November, X will be using user data to train XAI’s artificial intelligence plays, presented as Grok on X. At present users can opt out of having their data used to train Grok but it’s not clear if this will still be the case in future.
In light of all this uncertainty, users are moving to other social networks.
At the weekend, Bluesky, former Twitter founder and chief exec Jack Dorsey’s decentralised social network, announced that it had gained 1.2 million users in two days. For context, half a million people signed up once the news broke that X was making blocks worse. The amount of signups was so immense that the influx of traffic knocked Bluesky off balance for a few hours but it recovered quickly.
congratulations everyone, we have now passed 12 million people total on bluesky!!! 🦋
over 1.2M new people have joined bluesky in the last two days — welcome!! 💙🕺🪩
— Bluesky (@bsky.app) October 18, 2024 at 7:42 PM
While initially invite-only, registration for Bluesky opened to all in February. Now with the changes at X, registrations are surging.
As reported by TechCrunch, the Bluesky mobile app is surging to the top of the charts in several countries. It should concern X that Bluesky is now the number one app in Japan, one of X’s largest markets. Perhaps more concerning is that Bluesky went from the 181st most popular app in the US in the social networking category to 2nd, inside of a week.
Meta’s answer to Twitter, Threads, hasn’t shared any news of massive user gains like BlueSky has but it’s quietly making a name for itself in the space. Meta has said that it’s not all that interested in making Threads news-centric which isn’t great and likely why so many people are opting to sign-up for BlueSky as an alternative to X.
Users on X have been expressing disdain for the platform for a while now. Things such as Musk’s permanent position on the For You page and an alarming increase in hatred on the platform have pushed users away.
Fans and Premium subscribers keep trying to make it seem as if all is well and that X continues to the top of the charts in the News app category, but it’s clear that its dominance has come to an end.
Perhaps Musk can offer random folks $1 million to post on X, he seems to have the funds to hand after all.
