Bluesky has the juice

I’ve written before about Twitter’s not-so-slow descent into its current broken, hideous form. While I once said that Twitter was accidentally benefitting from avoiding feature creep and that it was one of the places where the cultural concept of “the internet” was located, that place doesn’t exist anymore.

Beginning two years ago, new owner Elon Musk began his reign of chaos by firing a big chunk of the company. Six months later, I called it dead. Like many others, I was confused about its unnecessary and not-quite-sticking rebrand to X. And I said that you should probably follow NPR’s lead and keep your brand off of there.

After spilling a few thousand words on this topic, I don’t have much more to say about Twitter. It’s a simple conclusion now: Twitter is a hollow, malicious shell of its former self, and it is not a place where you should spend your time or your company’s dollars.

But what is new and interesting is that, quite recently, we finally seem to see a coalescing around a replacement platform. After two years, Bluesky has the juice.

If they’re not at 20 million users by the time you read this, they’ll likely be there within the next few hours. When you’re talking about the billions on Instagram and TikTok, that seems like a pittance – but among those “few” are some of the most influential people on the web. Journalists, academics, technologists, and advocates are disproportionately in that group. Politicians like AOC are there – as are weirdo internet celebrities like dril.

It’s been the number one social app in the App Store. The New York Times did a whole big thing about it. The Mayor of New York City ordered all city agencies to set up accounts there.

Bluesky is more open and pro-social than the average social media platform. It has stronger privacy controls, it’s a public benefit corporation, and it is designed in a way that doesn’t lock you into the platform the same way every other network does. This all makes me happy and optimistic for the exact reason that Jason Koebler articulated in a recent article for 404 Media:

The active migration away from social media networks that are owned, controlled by, and distorted by the richest men and most powerful companies in the world to a decentralized platform that is not owned and controlled by billionaires is one of the more hopeful things to happen in what has largely been a bleak year for the human internet as AI slop infects everything and billionaires put their thumbs on the scale of what we see on social media. The Bluesky migration is good news, and I hope it continues.

The internet is in a weird place. Lots of things are in a weird place. But Bluesky pulling ahead in the battle to replace the once “global town square” is good news.

Go get your account. Right now, the vibe is still distinctly anti-marketing, but you should probably also go get one for your organizations and brands.

Even if you don’t spend your attention there, be mindful of where you do spend it. Every platform has an agenda. And, as the semi-ancient meme goes, you are not immune to propaganda.