Less than 10 days after BlueSky’s user-base hit nine million, the social media platform has announced another major landmark in its number of users.
“If you’re reading this,” read a post from the Delaware-based service on its own feed on Sunday, “you’re one of the first 10 million users on Bluesky!”
The ban placed on X, formerly Twitter, in Brazil last month is one of the main reasons attributed for the growth of BlueSky’s usership. But a backlash to Elon Musk’s divisive use of his own platform is thought to be another contributing factor to his competitor’s growing global influence.
10 Million and Counting
BlueSky announced the landmark on its own platform in both English and Portuguese; that’s understandable, considering the Brazilian skewed demographic of its users.
If you’re reading this, you’re one of the first 10 million users on Bluesky!
Se você está lendo isso, você é um dos primeiros 10 milhões de usuários do Bluesky!
— Bluesky (@bsky.app) September 15, 2024 at 8:25 PM
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That’s obviously still some way off X’s estimated 365 million active users, but is a substantial influx compared to the 1 million users BlueSky had this time last year.
Brazil Ban Parts Clouds for BlueSky
On September 4th, BlueSky posted that it had “grown by more than 2.6 million users, over 85% of which are Brazilian”.
With a population in excess of 210 million people, it’s no great surprise that the Twitter alternative’s numbers are growing so rapidly in the South American country – X was formerly suspended there on August 30th.
The ban in Brazil was passed by the Federal Supreme Court, with X the subject of an official investigation into its alleged practice of the crimes of obstruction of justice, criminal organization and incitement to crime.
With court orders and fines still outstanding and the use of VPNs to access X also subject to large penalties, the ban is likely to be upheld until X complies with the court-imposed measures. That gives BlueSky the opportunity to establish its foothold in the market even further.
Elon Giving Users Ennui
In addition to the ban in Brazil, the outspoken and often controversial views of X owner Elon Musk appear to be another contributing factor to the mass migration to BlueSky – not to mention the social media platform’s loss of advertising revenue.
The world’s richest man has been vocal in his support for Donald Trump during the 2024 presidential election race and has reposted content that contains deliberate misinformation, for example a deepfake of Kamala Harris describing herself as a “deep state puppet”.
Only yesterday, Musk posted a ‘joke’ about a Biden/Harris assignation. This was quickly deleted.
High profile names such as Elton John, Whoopi Goldberg, Gigi Hadid, Toni Braxton and Jack White have also deleted their X/Twitter accounts since Musk took over the company.
