Jack Dorsey’s Bluesky set to give Elon Musk’s Twitter a run for its money

Following the controversial changes made by tech billionaire Elon Musk on the microblogging site Twitter, its former CEO Jack Dorsey has launched Bluesky for those who are missing the old platform.

As the app opens and the option of creating an account is clicked, it says: “This is the company that keeps you online”.

The Bluesky was launched on iOS in February and on Android this month.

Its system is run on a decentralised network providing users more control over how the service is operated, giving more control over data storage and content moderation to users.

Recently Dorsey’s Bluesky gained the attention of people such as Democratic Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Chrissy Teigen, among others.

Find out what this Jack Dorsey’s new platform is.

What is Bluesky?

It is a new social network for microblogging same to Twitter, in which its users post different kinds of updates posts on their timelines. However, in the new app, there are no hashtags or options to message directly to other users.

The Bluesky was created independently of Twitter when Jack Dorsey was its CEO. However, it was funded by the company until it became independent in February last year.

Dorsey introduced his idea in a Tweet back in 2019, saying it also plans to “build an open community around it, inclusive of companies [and] organisations, researchers, civil society leaders.” Still, he warned, “this isn’t going to happen overnight.”

Dorsey said last year: “The biggest issue and my biggest regret is that [Twitter] became a company.”

He later clarified that “if a service was a protocol, it can’t be owned by a state or company.”

Twitter facing exodus?

People are finding alternatives to Twitter who are frustrated by the decisions of its CEO Elon Musk, who acquired it for $44 billion last year.

In the time span of six months, Elon Musk decided to make several controversial changes, such as blue ticks from prominent figures, sparking fears of disinformation and fake news.

Some of the important public figures are opting for Bluesky after Musk’s new direction.

Data.ai reported that Bluesky has been downloaded more than 375,000 times from the Apple App Store and the waitlist continues to be flooded with signup requests.

The number of downloads on Google Play can be seen more than 100,000 times.

It remains to be seen how Bluesky would sustain its presence and won’t be eclipsed as Mastodon — a similar platform gained attention last year.

The early shift toward Bluesky is a positive one, as it gives social media users more choice over where they spend their time, said Mark Bartholomew, a professor at the University at Buffalo School of Law who writes about online privacy.

“Competition might actually help users find the product features they want, like greater privacy protection, portability, and more significant content moderation,” added Bartholomew.

“Social media platforms have features that users dislike but they still feel like they must accept them to just be in the online space where everyone else is,” he said.

He also noted that People went to Bluesky because Musk forced them to, by “sabotaging his own platform.”