• by Colin Kirkland , August 13, 2024

Like Meta’s Threads app, decentralized social media platform Bluesky -- launched as a direct competitor to Elon Musk’s X app -- is providing X users with another potentially less volatile space to commune after Musk slashed the majority of X’s content-moderation team in 2022.

And still, Musk’s actions continue to drive users to Bluesky. On Tuesday, the microblogging app reported a surge in signups and usage among users in the United Kingdom over the past few days, citing Musk’s controversial comments posted to X regarding the recent nationwide riots.

According to Bluesky, there has been a 60% increase in activity from accounts in the U.K., with members of parliament joining the platform as well. 

“For 5 out of the last 7 days, the U.K. had the most Bluesky signups of any country,” said Bluesky.

Following the fatal stabbing of three young girls in the northern English town of Southport at a Taylor Swift-themed holiday dance class that was wrongly blamed on an Islamic immigrant due to online misinformation, riots have erupted involving violence, arson and looting, as well as Islamophobic, racist attacks targeting Muslims and migrants. Over 1,000 people have been arrested so far. 

Former Twitter chief Bruce Daisley has called out Musk for his remarks on X that incited the riots and unrest, and told The Guardian that the billionaire should face “personal sanctions” and an “arrest warrant” if found to be stirring up public disorder on X. 

In one post, Musk wrote that “civil war is inevitable” in the U.K. The X owner also shared a false post suggesting that Britain’s new prime minister Keir Starmer was planning to set up “detainment camps” in the Falkland Islands, which Musk later deleted. 

In response, Daisley believes that Starmer should “beef up” online safety laws and decide whether Ofcom, a media regulator, “is fit to deal with the blurringly fast actions of the likes of Musk.”

Over time, Musk has drifted toward right-wing politics. He has now publicly endorsed former U.S. president Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential race. In an interview Musk ran with Trump this week, which was aired exclusively on X, Musk said he would even participate in a government efficiency commission, in which the former president agreed. 

Bluesky officially went public last July, and has since amassed almost 700 thousand monthly active users, according to data from digital market intelligence company Similarweb, and continues to grow out of the vision of ex-Twitter head Jack Dorsey, who started the app.

While Dorsey recently left Bluesky, the company recently hired Twitter’s former trust and safety leader, Aaron Rodericks, who was fired from Twitter after Musk cut half of the Election Integrity team. Rodericks, now in charge of Bluesky’s round-the-clock content-moderation efforts, says “there is an urgent global need for a social network that can safely and effectively meet the needs of communities and individuals.”

Due to its decentralized nature, and eventual federation -- which allows users and communities to set their own preferences alongside external moderation services and blocklists -- Bluesky’s moderation requirements utilize a more complex approach than centralized platforms like X and Meta’s Threads. 

As the app continues to grow, alongside other competitors like Threads and Mastodon, and the presidential election heats up, Bluesky may attract a larger swath of users in reaction to Musk and the proliferation of right-wing politics on X.