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Bluesky’s rise following the re-election of Donald Trump is sign of an increasingly polarised social media landscape
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Left-wing users of Bluesky, a rival to Elon Musk’s X, are urging their followers to block pro-Donald Trump accounts as part of a protest against the US election result.
The social media platform – which recently hit 20m users – has been gaining traction ever since Mr Trump’s victory, as liberal voters seek an alternative to X.
However, the shift has led to accusations of Bluesky becoming an “echo chamber”, as users promote so-called block lists to hide Republican-leaning accounts from their timeline.
One of the lists in question is called “MAGA cockroaches”.
More than 5m new users, including liberal influencers, politicians and media outlets, have joined Bluesky since Mr Trump’s triumph on Nov 5.
This has been fuelled by a Left-wing exodus from X, as thousands of Kamala Harris supporters quit in response to Mr Musk’s vociferous support for the president-elect.
According to media analysts at Similarweb, account “deactivations” on X hit a record 281,600 on Nov 6.
In a blog post, Similarweb said Bluesky’s sudden growth was “linked to users either leaving X or investing more time in exploring a promising alternative”.
On Monday, Similarweb said Bluesky app usage had surged 500pc in the US since election day, while it was 350pc higher in the UK.
However, the influx of Left-leaning users and influencers has led some commentators, such as Free Speech Union founder Toby Young, to label Bluesky an “echo chamber”.
Mr Young said: “One of the ironies of people on the Left deserting X for Bluesky is that they are often the very same people who complain about how politics has become ‘too polarised’.”
On Bluesky, some users have revelled in the “echo chamber” criticism. One post shared more than 4,000 times said: “Echo chamber? Nah, we prefer to call it surround sound for facts.”
“Bluesky is an echo chamber!”
Our Reply: Echo chamber? Nah, we prefer to call it surround sound for facts.
Bluesky, which began as a spin-off of Twitter in 2019, launched publicly last year as a form of “decentralised” social media that is not controlled by any one company. X severed all ties with the service after Mr Musk’s Twitter takeover in 2022.
Matt Navarra, a social media consultant and industry analyst, said: “Bluesky feels very similar to the early years of Twitter – it has a journalist and tech dominance.”
He said there appeared to be more “liberal and Left-leaning accounts – which is in stark contrast to where X has been taken by Elon Musk.”
“There is no platform that is truly balanced,” said Mr Navarra. “X is a more extreme version of that and maybe Bluesky will be the contrast and opposing platform.”
Last week, The Telegraph revealed The Guardian would stop posting on X, as it accused Mr Musk of failing to stop “disturbing content” including “far-right conspiracy theories and racism”.
This week, the Left-leaning newspaper launched an account on Bluesky, while dozens of its reporters have joined the app.
The BBC’s Newsnight programme has also set up an official account.
Yesterday, Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, joined the site, adding to a growing number of Labour politicians using the app.
Sir Keir Starmer told journalists on Tuesday he had no plans to join Bluesky “at the moment” and said the Government was “obviously still using X”.
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