Bluesky[a] is a microblogging social networking service modeled after Twitter (now X). Users can share text messages, images, and videos in short posts.[6] The service is primarily operated by Bluesky Social, an American benefit corporation.[7][8]
Type of site | Social networking service |
---|---|
Available in | 19 languages[1] |
Founded | |
Area served | Worldwide |
Owner | Bluesky Social, PBC[3] |
Founder(s) | Jack Dorsey |
CEO | Jay Graber |
URL | bsky |
Registration | Optional |
Users |
|
Current status | Active |
Bluesky was developed as a reference implementation of the AT Protocol, an open communication protocol for distributed social networks.[9] Bluesky Social promotes a composable user experience and algorithmic choice as core features of Bluesky.[10][11][12] 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.[13][14][15] The AT Protocol offers a domain name-based handle system within Bluesky, allowing users to self-verify an account's legitimacy and identity by proving ownership of a domain name.[16][15]
Bluesky began in 2019 as a research initiative at Twitter, becoming an independent company in 2021.[17][18] Development for the social app accelerated in 2022 after Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter and subsequent severing of ties between the companies.[19][20] Bluesky launched as an invite-only service in February 2023 and opened registrations in February 2024.[21] Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey left Bluesky Social's board by May 2024.[22] The social media platform grew after October 2024, reaching 20 million users by November 2024.[23][24]
History
editResearch initiative
edit
jack⚡️ @jackTwitter is funding a small independent team of up to five open source architects, engineers, and designers to develop an open and decentralized standard for social media. The goal is for Twitter to ultimately be a client of this standard. 🧵
Dec 11, 2019[25]
Twitter's then-CEO Jack Dorsey first announced the Bluesky initiative in 2019 on Twitter to explore the possibility of decentralizing Twitter.[26][17] The stated goal was to find or develop an open and decentralized standard for social media that would give users more control over their data and experience.[7]
Twitter collected a working group of experts in decentralized technology in a Matrix group chat to achieve a consensus on the best path towards decentralization.[27] However, this group did not achieve consensus toward these goals. As a result, Twitter decided to field individual proposals from these experts.[28]
In early 2021, Bluesky was in a research phase, with 50 people from the decentralized technology community active in assessing options and assembling proposals for the protocol.[7] This ultimately led to the hiring of Jay Graber in August 2021 to lead the Bluesky project and the development of the "Authenticated Data Experiment" (ADX), a custom-built protocol made for the purpose of decentralization.[29][30][18] Twitter provided $13 million in initial funding to the Bluesky project to begin development.[31]
Incorporation and independence from Twitter
editIn October 2021, Graber incorporated the Bluesky project as an independent company called "Bluesky Social", and cited Twitter's "very entrenched existing incentives" as a reason to operate independently.[20] Bluesky Social became a benefit corporation in February 2022, with the mission to "develop and drive large-scale adoption of technologies for open and decentralized public conversation".[32] The company's first three employees were hired in March 2022.[33]
After Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter, Twitter severed all legal and financial ties with Bluesky Social. Musk's takeover did not immediately affect Bluesky Social's operations as a separate entity, but affected its prospects for further funding. Bluesky Social developed the AT Protocol, alongside a reference implementation in the form of a social media service, as a minimum viable product.[20] The company began a waitlist for this service in October 2022.[34]
Invite-only open beta
editBluesky launched as an invite-only iOS beta in February 2023.[35] In April 2023, it was released for Android.[36] Soon after the launch of the Android app, the social network claimed about 50,000 users.[37] Code for the app was made open source under the MIT license in May 2023, with some server software being dual-licensed with the Apache license.[38] Bluesky garnered media attention soon after its launch due to its close association with Twitter and Jack Dorsey.[39]
The social service attracted minority communities and subcultures, including Black, artist, left-wing, transgender, sex worker, and furry communities, who benefited from the invite system.[40][41][42] These early communities are often credited for the platform's historically left-leaning culture and its implementation of robust community management and moderation features.[40][43][44] Bluesky Social recognized the influence of these early adopters, with Bluesky COO Rose Wang stating that an early goal during the open beta period was to "develop and nurture a set of power users who can help evangelize and help us really tell [...] and reinforce the culture" established by these communities.[45]
On July 5, 2023, Bluesky Social announced it had raised $8 million in a seed funding round led by Neo.[46] Bluesky Social pledged to use the funds to grow its team, manage operations, pay for infrastructure costs, and further develop the AT Protocol.[46] The company also announced its conversion to a public benefit C corporation.[46]
In July 2023, Bluesky experienced a controversy after users discovered the social app did not prevent users from using racial slurs within their handles, as well as the removal of discriminatory slurs from the platform's list of flagged words.[47] This led to a "posting strike" from users, in which users refused to use the app until Bluesky Social addressed the controversy.[48] The controversy led to a public apology from Bluesky Social, an update to the platform's terms of service specifying a prohibition of conduct that "targets people based on their race, gender, religion, ethnicity, nationality, disability, or sexual orientation", and the establishment of a trust and safety team within the company.[49]
In December 2023, Bluesky Social announced a company logo to replace the previous use of a cloudy sky stock image, which was also used as the icon for the official app and website. This icon was a blue butterfly, inspired by existing users' usage of the butterfly emoji to indicate their handles on the service.[50]
Bluesky saw rapid growth during its open beta period, reaching 1 million registered users by September 2023[51] and surpassing 2 million users in November of that same year.[52] By the time of its public launch in February 2024, the social app had reached over 3 million users.[21]
Public launch
editBluesky opened registrations to the general public on February 6, 2024, a year after its release as an invite-required beta.[21] It opened federation to the social app through the AT Protocol soon afterwards, allowing users to build apps within the protocol and provide their own storage for content sent to Bluesky Social.[53][54]
Bluesky has experienced several bursts of expansion and contraction following its public launch, mainly in relation to controversies and changes at Twitter.[5] These bursts were referred to as "Elon Musk Events", or EMEs, by developers at Bluesky Social.[55][56]
Bluesky saw a large influx of registrations by Japanese-speaking users soon after public launch, partly driven by notable Japanese social media personalities such as artist Ui Shigure registering accounts in the platform.[57]
On May 4, 2024, Jack Dorsey, who had initiated and funded the Bluesky research initiative, posted on Twitter that he was no longer on Bluesky Social's board.[58] Bluesky Social confirmed his departure the next day.[59] Dorsey had previously deleted his account from the platform and vouched his support for both Twitter and Nostr, another decentralized protocol.[60][22] In an interview, Dorsey criticized Bluesky Social, stating that they were "literally repeating all the mistakes [Twitter] made as a company", taking issue with Bluesky Social's company structure and the introduction of moderation tools into the AT Protocol.[61]
In August 2024, following the blocking of Twitter in Brazil, Bluesky gained over 4 million users in under two weeks, becoming the most popular app in the Brazilian App Store and Play Store.[62][63] Shortly afterwards, on September 16, Bluesky announced it had reached 10 million users.[64] Daily active users in Brazil decreased under 2 million by October.[5]
In October 2024, following changes to Twitter's block feature and Terms of Service to analyze users' content for AI training purposes by default, over 1.2 million users joined Bluesky within 2 days.[65][66] On October 24, Bluesky Social announced it had reached 13 million users. It also announced a $15 million Series A financing round led by Blockchain Capital.[67][68] The company pledged to not integrate cryptocurrency into the social app or the AT Protocol, so as to not "hyperfinancialize the social experience".[67]
Post-election growth
editIn the weeks following the 2024 United States presidential election on November 5, 2024, in which former president Donald Trump was re-elected for a second non-consecutive term, millions of Twitter users from the United States, the United Kingdom[5] and Canada joined Bluesky.[69] By November 13, Bluesky had reached 15 million users, growing by around 1 million users per day and reaching the top of the Apple's App Store and Google's Play Store in the United States.[70][71][72]
On November 19, Bluesky officially crossed 20 million users, tripling its userbase within 3 months.[73][74] This surge also triggered a significant uptick of moderation reports with Bluesky Safety noting on November 16, "In the past 24 hours, we have received more than 42,000 reports (an all-time high for one day). We're receiving about 3,000 reports/hour. To put that into context, in all of 2023, we received 360k reports."[75] COO Rose Wang stated that the company's primary focus during the surge was ensuring the platform remained operational while maintaining the integrity of its moderation policies, emphasizing that effective content moderation enhances the user experience.[76]
The major increase in users led to servers being temporarily overloaded, resulting in the platform acquiring more servers.[77][24][78][79] The surge also necessitated a growth in content moderation.[80] While growth was primarily driven by European and American users, popularity of the platform rose in East Asian countries like Japan as well.[81]
Features
editBluesky is largely analogous to Twitter in its structure.[9] Users can send 300-character text messages, images, and video in short posts. Users can reply, repost, quote post and like these posts. Frequent users have called posts on the platform "skeets", a portmanteau of "sky" and "tweets", despite CEO Jay Graber's vigorous disapproval of the term.[82][83][41]
Bluesky offers a domain name-based handle system[9] via the AT Protocol, allowing users to self-verify an account's legitimacy and identity by proving ownership of a domain name through a DNS text record or HTTPS page.[84] The verification needs to be repeated as a live operation by consumers.[9] The specification doesn't handle changes in status of the domain names.[9]
Bluesky promotes a "marketplace of algorithms" through its Custom Feeds feature, where users can choose or create algorithmic feeds. Bluesky CTO Paul Frazee stated that "In future updates [Bluesky] will make it easy for users to create custom feeds in-app."[85] Third-party tools to publish Custom Feeds on Bluesky have been created by independent developers, including a popular client named Skyfeed.[86]
Bluesky Social claims that an aim "not be controlled by a single company" is furthered by a composable user experience, "stackable" moderation, and algorithmic choice.[87][88] 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.[88][89][90]
Bluesky open-sourced its in-house moderation software called "Ozone" in March 2024 for these services.[91]
Bluesky introduced "anti-toxicity" features in August 2024, allowing users to "detach" quote posts from their original post and to hide replies to a user's post. Bluesky also promised the addition of a community notes-like feature.[92][93][94]
Technology
editBluesky unveiled open source code in May 2022 for an early version of its distributed social network protocol, Authenticated Data Experiment (ADX),[95] since renamed the Authenticated Transfer (AT) Protocol.[96] The team opened its early code and placed it under an MIT License so that the development process would be seen in public.[95]
The AT Protocol's initial architecture centers around three main services: a Personal Data Server (PDS), Relay (previously referred to as a Big Graph Service, or BGS), and an AppView.[9] A PDS is a server which hosts user data in "Data Repositories", which utilize a Merkle tree.[97] The PDS also handles user authentication and manages the signing keys for its hosted repositories. A Relay is described as analogous to an indexer on the web, ingesting repositories from a variety of different PDS hosts and serving them in a single unified stream for other services to ingest. AppViews, meanwhile, are services which consume data from a Relay and can serve it to final users.[9] As of November 2024, most systems are centralized or rely on a central authority run by BlueSky Social, including a central registry of identities and documents used to make them addressable.[9]
Direct messages are offered though a parallel services outside the AT Protocol, centrally run by Bluesky Social.[9]
Mastodon can be bridged to Bluesky.[98]
Corporate structure
editBluesky Social, officially named Bluesky Social PBC, is a privately-owned for-profit corporation. The company is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.[citation needed] Bluesky Social is a benefit corporation; as such, it is allowed to use its profits for the public good, and is not obligated to maximize shareholder value or return profits to its shareholders as dividends. It is owned by CEO Jay Graber and other Bluesky Social employees. Graber has the largest ownership share of the company. In late 2024, members of the board of directors included Graber, Jeremie Miller, Mike Masnick, and Kinjal Shah.[8][99][100]
Funding for operations, as of late 2024, comes primarily from investors and venture capital firms. No advertising is available on the service as of November 2024, and Jay Graber has stated that Bluesky will not "enshittify the network with ads".[101] The company is considering introducing an optional subscription service for users, as well as introducing user-to-user payment services.[8][102]
Reception
editReviewing the app in February 2023, TechCrunch called it "a functional, if still rather bare-bones, Twitter-like experience".[103]
Lance Ulanoff of TechRadar originally signed up in April 2023 and at the time declared Bluesky "quiet, reserved, thoughtful, or even polite. Overall, BlueSky is the equivalent of a social media Shangri-La." When he revisited it in November 2024 after the post-US election surge in signups he declared that "for the moment, it's the most exciting place on social media" and "I wasted my day on Bluesky Social and no, I'm not sorry".[104]
Another review posted the same month highlighted key differences between Bluesky and X, particularly in the level of control provided to users. Bluesky allows users to filter content and select algorithms through customizable feeds, and also incorporates features to combat harassment, including a traditional block function and anti-toxicity tools, such as the ability to detach a post from being quoted by others.[105]
Jason Perlow of ZDNet wrote "It's not a direct replacement for Twitter (X), but Bluesky has a lot to offer those who want a fresh start in a decentralized, privacy-minded network." He highlights the claimed decentralized nature of Bluesky, the lack of algorithmic feeds and in a lukewarm manner says that "Bluesky might be worth your time if you're ready to leave algorithm-driven feeds behind and try a network that prioritizes user control."[106]
Censorship
editOn November 21, 2024, the Pakistani internet authority blocked access to Bluesky.[107][108]
See also
editNotes
edit- ^ Commonly abbreviated as Bsky
References
edit- ^ "GitHub – bluesky-social/social-app – locales". GitHub. Archived from the original on October 28, 2024. Retrieved October 28, 2024.
- ^ "Frequently Asked Questions". Bluesky. Archived from the original on July 14, 2023. Retrieved July 23, 2023.
- ^ a b "Division of Corporations – Filing". Government of Delaware. Archived from the original on September 21, 2015. Retrieved January 11, 2024.
File Number: 6282898, Incorporation Date: 10/4/2021 (mm/dd/yyy), Entity Name: BLUESKY SOCIAL, PBC, Entity Kind: Corporation, Entity Type: Benefit Corporation, City: WILMINGTON, County: NEW CASTLE, State: DE
- ^ "Bluesky User Counter". bsky-users.theo.io.
- ^ a b c d "Bluesky Sees Greatest Sustained Growth So Far in the US and UK". Similarweb. Retrieved November 23, 2024.
- ^ Murray, Conor. "What To Know About Bluesky—The Buzzy Social Media App Siphoning Users From Elon Musk's X". Forbes. Retrieved November 15, 2024.
- ^ a b c Matney, Lucas (January 15, 2021). "Twitter's decentralized future". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on September 6, 2021. Retrieved September 6, 2021.
- ^ a b c "X users jump to Bluesky - but what is it and who owns it?". www.bbc.com. Retrieved November 23, 2024.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Christine Lemmer-Webber (November 22, 2024). "How decentralized is Bluesky really?".
- ^ Silberling, Amanda (January 24, 2024). "Bluesky CEO confronts content moderation in the fediverse". TechCrunch. Retrieved November 23, 2024.
- ^ Navlakha, Meera (March 13, 2024). "Bluesky is letting users customize how content is moderated". Mashable. Retrieved November 23, 2024.
- ^ Stokel-Walker, Chris (November 19, 2024). "Bluesky is ushering in a pick-your-own algorithm era of social media". New Scientist. Retrieved November 23, 2024.
- ^ "Bluesky now lets you choose your own algorithm". Engadget. May 26, 2023. Retrieved November 23, 2024.
- ^ Parab, Pranay (November 19, 2024). "How to Create a Starter Pack on Bluesky, and Why You Should". Lifehacker. Retrieved November 23, 2024.
- ^ a b Davis, Wes (November 16, 2024). "Here's some cool stuff you can do with Bluesky". The Verge. Retrieved November 23, 2024.
- ^ Jack, Bobby (November 9, 2024). "3 Steps to Link Your Bluesky Account to a Custom Domain". How-To Geek. Retrieved November 18, 2024.
- ^ a b Palmer, Annie (December 11, 2019). "Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has an idealistic vision for the future of social media and is funding a small team to chase it". CNBC. Retrieved November 13, 2024.
- ^ a b Campbell, Ian Carlos (August 16, 2021). "Twitter's decentralized social network project finally has a leader". The Verge. Retrieved November 13, 2024.
- ^ Patel, Nilay (March 25, 2024). "Bluesky CEO Jay Graber on breaking free from Twitter and competing with Threads and Mastodon". The Verge. Retrieved November 13, 2024.
- ^ a b c "Make Identity Central Again, with Bluesky's Jay Graber". dot-social.simplecast.com. October 1, 2024. Retrieved November 13, 2024.
- ^ a b c Oremus, Will (February 6, 2024). "Bluesky, a trendy rival to X, finally opens to the public". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on April 7, 2024. Retrieved February 6, 2024.
- ^ a b Davis, Wes (May 5, 2024). "Bluesky confirms Jack Dorsey is no longer on its board". The Verge. Retrieved November 14, 2024.
- ^ "Bluesky is growing so fast it's racing to get hold of more servers, its COO says". Yahoo Tech. November 25, 2024.
- ^ a b Crowley, Mary Walrath-Holdridge and Kinsey. "Bluesky user count hits 20 million and continues to grow: What to know about the platform". USA TODAY.
- ^ jack⚡️ [@jack] (December 11, 2019). "Twitter is funding a small independent team of up to five open source architects, engineers, and designers to develop an open and decentralized standard for social media. The goal is for Twitter to ultimately be a client of this standard. 🧵" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ^ Masnick, Mike (December 11, 2019). "Twitter Makes A Bet On Protocols Over Platforms". Techdirt. Archived from the original on May 2, 2023. Retrieved May 2, 2023.
- ^ Kasanmascheff, Markus (November 16, 2024). "The Rise of Bluesky: From Twitter Sideproject to Refuge for Fleeing X Users". WinBuzzer. Retrieved November 17, 2024.
- ^ "How It Started: Three Phases". Bluesky. Retrieved November 17, 2024.
- ^ Dang, Sheila (August 16, 2021). "Twitter-backed Bluesky picks tech entrepreneur to lead web research group". Reuters. Archived from the original on December 21, 2022. Retrieved January 23, 2023.
- ^ Wagner, Kurt (August 16, 2021). "Twitter Finds Leader for 'Decentralized' Social Media Project Bluesky". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on November 22, 2022. Retrieved January 23, 2023.
- ^ Castillo, Michael del. "Jack Dorsey-Backed Decentralized Twitter Rival Prepares To Launch With One Million Users". Forbes. Retrieved November 17, 2024.
- ^ "Announcing Bluesky PBLLC". Bluesky. Retrieved November 13, 2024.
- ^ Dang, Sheila (March 31, 2022). "Social media interoperability project Bluesky names first employees". Reuters. Archived from the original on April 21, 2022. Retrieved April 21, 2022.
- ^ Robertson, Adi (October 29, 2022). "Will Elon Musk keep funding Twitter's most interesting side project?". The Verge. Retrieved November 17, 2024.
- ^ Hutchinson, Andrew (February 28, 2023). "Decentralized Twitter Alternative 'Bluesky' Launches in Private Beta". Social Media Today. Retrieved November 13, 2024.
- ^ Peters, Jay (April 19, 2023). "Bluesky, a decentralized Twitter alternative, is now on Android". MSN. The Verge. Archived from the original on April 20, 2023. Retrieved April 20, 2023.
- ^ Murphy, Hannah (May 2, 2023). "Jack Dorsey's Bluesky emerges as latest challenger to Elon Musk's Twitter". Financial Times. Archived from the original on May 2, 2023. Retrieved May 2, 2023.
- ^ Vaughan-Nichols, Steven (May 16, 2023). "Bluesky Social just took a big open-source step forward". ZDNET. Archived from the original on July 21, 2023. Retrieved July 21, 2023.
- ^ Kelly, Samantha Murphy (April 28, 2023). "Twitter's former CEO has a new app that looks a lot like Twitter | CNN Business". CNN. Retrieved November 21, 2024.
- ^ a b Rose, Janus (May 12, 2023). "Keep Bluesky Weird". VICE. Retrieved November 22, 2024.
- ^ a b Jeong, Sarah (May 2, 2023). "What's it like on Bluesky right now, anyways?". The Verge. Archived from the original on January 17, 2024. Retrieved January 21, 2024.
- ^ Lewis, Helen (July 30, 2023). "The Weird, Fragmented World of Social Media After Twitter". The Atlantic. Retrieved November 22, 2024.
- ^ Sung, Morgan (May 2, 2023). "For Bluesky to thrive, it needs sex workers and Black Twitter". Archived from the original on September 7, 2024. Retrieved January 21, 2024.
- ^ Klee, Miles (May 3, 2023). "'It's a Huge Relief': Trans 'Shitposters' on Bluesky Feel Safer Away From Twitter". Rolling Stone. Retrieved November 22, 2024.
- ^ Gagne, Yasmin (November 22, 2024). "'Speech should be open to all': Bluesky COO Rose Wang on the platform's radical vision for social media". Fast Company. Retrieved November 22, 2024.
- ^ a b c Perez, Sarah (July 5, 2023). "Bluesky announces its $8M seed round and first paid service, custom domains". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on July 8, 2023. Retrieved July 8, 2023.
- ^ "Bluesky allowed people to include the n-word in their usernames". Engadget. July 15, 2023. Retrieved November 17, 2024.
- ^ Sung, Morgan (July 18, 2023). "Bluesky is under fire for allowing usernames with racial slurs". TechCrunch. Retrieved November 17, 2024.
- ^ Sung, Morgan (July 27, 2023). "Bluesky sends some users personalized apologies after racism controversy". TechCrunch. Retrieved November 17, 2024.
- ^ Graber, Jay (December 21, 2023). "A New Look for Bluesky: The Social Butterfly". Bluesky Blog. Archived from the original on March 28, 2024. Retrieved January 6, 2024.
- ^ Hatmaker, Taylor (September 13, 2023). "Bluesky officially hits 1 million users". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on January 31, 2024. Retrieved September 13, 2023.
- ^ "Bluesky's Surge To 2 Million Users: A New Era In Decentralized Social Networking". DailyCompanyNews. November 18, 2023. Archived from the original on March 22, 2024. Retrieved November 30, 2023.
- ^ "Bluesky: An Open Social Web". Bluesky. Retrieved November 14, 2024.
- ^ Perez, Sarah (February 22, 2024). "Bluesky opens up federation, letting anyone run their own server". TechCrunch. Retrieved November 14, 2024.
- ^ "Half a Million Users Flooded to Twitter Competitor After Elon Musk Handed Creeps the Keys". Futurism. October 17, 2024. Retrieved November 18, 2024.
- ^ Heilman, Greg (October 19, 2024). "The social media app that stole a million users from Twitter (X) after Elon Musk changed the blocking system". AS USA. Retrieved November 18, 2024.
- ^ Ranta, Petri (February 22, 2024). "X:n haastajaan iski käyttäjien vyöry yhdestä maasta – kuinka valvoa kieltä, jota ei puhu?" [An influx of users struck the challenger of X – how to moderate a language you don't speak?]. Mikrobitti (in Finnish).
- ^ Ha, Anthony (May 5, 2024). "Jack Dorsey departs Bluesky board". TechCrunch. Retrieved November 19, 2024.
- ^ Davis, Wes (May 5, 2024). "Bluesky confirms Jack Dorsey is no longer on its board". The Verge. Retrieved November 19, 2024.
- ^ Getahun, Hannah (May 5, 2024). "Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is spilling tea all over the platform FKA Twitter and here's a possible reason". Business Insider. Insider Inc. Archived from the original on May 15, 2024. Retrieved May 6, 2024.
- ^ Solana, Mike (May 9, 2024). "An Interview With Jack Dorsey". Pirate Wires. Retrieved November 19, 2024.
- ^ Binder, Matt (September 7, 2024). "Brazilian users flock to Bluesky after Elon Musk's X banned". Mashable. Retrieved September 8, 2024.
- ^ Ha, Anthony (August 31, 2024). "Bluesky tops app charts and sees 'all-time-highs' after Brazil bans X". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on September 1, 2024. Retrieved September 1, 2024.
- ^ Mehta, Ivan (September 17, 2024). "Bluesky now has more than 10M users". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 23, 2024.
- ^ Cooper, Gael (November 14, 2024). "Bluesky Soars to Top 5 Spot in US App Store After Rival X Changes How Blocks Work". CNET. Retrieved October 19, 2024.
- ^ Perez, Sarah (October 18, 2024). "Bluesky surges into the top 5 as X changes blocks, permits AI training on its data". TechCrunch. Retrieved October 19, 2024.
- ^ a b "Bluesky Announces Series A to Grow Network of 13M Users". Bluesky. Retrieved November 17, 2024.
- ^ Silberling, Amanda (October 24, 2024). "Bluesky raises $15M Series A, plans to launch subscriptions". TechCrunch. Retrieved November 17, 2024.
- ^ Allyn, Bobby (November 19, 2024). "Traffic on Bluesky, an X competitor, is up 500% since the election. How will they handle the surge?". NPR. Retrieved November 19, 2024.
- ^ Binder, Matt (November 13, 2024). "Bluesky hits #1 on the App Store as users continue to flee Elon Musk's X". Mashable. Retrieved November 19, 2024.
- ^ Davis, Wes (November 13, 2024). "Bluesky crosses the 15 million user mark". The Verge. Retrieved November 19, 2024.
- ^ "Bluesky Explained: Why This Social Media Network Is Growing by 1 Million Users a Day". CNET. Retrieved November 19, 2024.
- ^ Rahman, Abid (November 19, 2024). "#Xodus: Bluesky Hits 20M Users as People Continue to Flee X". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved November 19, 2024.
- ^ "Bluesky hits 20 million users". Engadget. November 19, 2024. Retrieved November 19, 2024.
- ^ "Bluesky Safety". bsky.app. November 16, 2024. Retrieved November 17, 2024.
- ^ Mann, Jyoti. "Bluesky is growing so fast it's racing to get hold of more servers, its COO says". Business Insider. Retrieved November 23, 2024.
- ^ Mann, Jyoti. "Bluesky is growing so fast it's racing to get hold of more servers, its COO says". Business Insider.
- ^ Mallapaty, Smriti (November 21, 2024). "'A place of joy': why scientists are joining the rush to Bluesky". Nature. doi:10.1038/d41586-024-03784-6. PMID 39572670 – via www.nature.com.
- ^ Bobby Allyn. "Traffic on Bluesky, an X competitor, is up 500% since the election. How will it handle the surge?". NPR.
- ^ Nelson, Jason (November 27, 2024). "BlueSky Sees Surge in New Users and Child Sexual Abuse Material". decrypt.co. Retrieved November 30, 2024.
- ^ Beattie, Elizabeth (November 25, 2024). "Bluesky is booming in Japan — mainly for reasons other than U.S. politics". The Japan Times.
- ^ Lopatto, Elizabeth (April 27, 2023). "They're 'skeets' now". The Verge. Archived from the original on April 28, 2023. Retrieved April 28, 2023.
- ^ Silberling, Amanda (April 27, 2023). "Bluesky's best shot at success is to embrace shitposting". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on April 27, 2023. Retrieved April 28, 2023.
- ^ Liu, Emily (April 28, 2023). "How to set your domain as your handle". Bluesky Blog. Archived from the original on September 3, 2024. Retrieved September 2, 2024.
- ^ Bell, Karissa (May 26, 2023). "Bluesky now lets you choose your own algorithm". Engadget. Archived from the original on January 6, 2024. Retrieved January 6, 2024.
- ^ "Featured Community Project: SkyFeed". AT Protocol. August 8, 2023. Archived from the original on January 6, 2024. Retrieved January 6, 2024.
- ^ "Company". Bluesky. Retrieved November 13, 2024.
- ^ a b "Algorithmic choice". Bluesky. Retrieved November 13, 2024.
- ^ Cross, Katherine Alejandra. "BlueSky Ain't It". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved November 14, 2024.
- ^ "Introducing Bluesky Starter Packs". Bluesky. Retrieved November 14, 2024.
- ^ "Bluesky's Stackable Approach to Moderation". Bluesky. Retrieved November 17, 2024.
- ^ Perez, Sarah (August 28, 2024). "Bluesky adds 'anti-toxicity' tools and aims to integrate 'a Community Notes-like' feature in the future". TechCrunch. Retrieved November 18, 2024.
- ^ Weatherbed, Jess (August 29, 2024). "Bluesky adds 'anti-toxicity' options to limit dogpiling and hostile quote posts". The Verge. Retrieved November 18, 2024.
- ^ "Bluesky user count hits 20 million and continues to grow: What to know about the platform". USA Today.
- ^ a b Robertson, Adi (May 4, 2022). "Twitter's decentralized, open-source offshoot just released its first code". The Verge. Archived from the original on December 17, 2022. Retrieved January 22, 2023.
- ^ Frenkel, Sheera (April 28, 2023). "What Is Bluesky and Why Are People Clamoring to Join It?". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on April 28, 2023. Retrieved April 28, 2023.
Bluesky also operates using an "open protocol." This is unusual because social media platforms have traditionally been walled gardens, meaning that what is posted on individual platforms remains only on that platform. For instance, your tweets show up on Twitter and your photos show up on Instagram, but they cannot be easily cross posted across those social networks.
- ^ "Repository". AT Protocol. Archived from the original on January 6, 2024. Retrieved January 6, 2024.
- ^ Pot, Justin (November 15, 2024). "Use 'Bridgy Fed' to Connect Mastodon and Bluesky". Lifehacker. Retrieved November 22, 2024.
- ^ Bluesky "About" FAQ https://bsky.social/about/faq
- ^ Bluesky blog post about creation of LLC https://bsky.social/about/blog/2-7-2022-overview
- ^ Knibbs, Kate. "Bluesky CEO Jay Graber Says She Won't 'Enshittify the Network With Ads'". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved November 22, 2024.
- ^ "Bluesky Announces Series A to Grow Network of 13M Users". Bluesky. Retrieved November 22, 2024.
- ^ Perez, Sarah (February 28, 2023). "Jack Dorsey-backed Twitter alternative Bluesky hits the App Store as an invite-only app". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on March 6, 2023. Retrieved March 7, 2023.
- ^ Ulanoff, Lance (November 14, 2024). "I wasted my day on Bluesky Social and no, I'm not sorry". TechRadar. Archived from the original on November 15, 2024. Retrieved November 20, 2024.
- ^ Rowlands, Christian (November 23, 2024). "The Bluesky hype explained – how it compares to Twitter and the best ways to switch". TechRadar. Retrieved November 23, 2024.
- ^ Perlow, Jason (November 14, 2024). "7 things to know about Bluesky before you join - and why you should". ZDNet. Archived from the original on November 19, 2024. Retrieved November 20, 2024.
- ^ Castro, Chiara (November 22, 2024). "Pakistan blocks Bluesky amid popularity surge". TechRadar.
- ^ Antoniuk, Daryna (November 22, 2024). "Pakistan appears to block social media platform Bluesky amid user surge". The Record from Recorded Future News. Retrieved November 22, 2024.