What is Bluesky? Social media app seeing rising popularity after election
Social media platform Bluesky has seen a boom in new accounts since the election.
President-elect Donald Trump's return to the White House has solidified a position for Elon Musk, owner of the social media platform X, on Trump's newly-formed Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.
When Musk bought Twitter, which he later rebranded into X, a slate of new social media platforms jockeyed to be the alternative to the popular short-form text app as he rolled back content moderation.
None of them took over, but as Musk is poised to be a Trump ally throughout his presidency, Bluesky is seeing an onslaught of new users. Here is what to know:
DOGE: Trump taps Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy to lead new 'Department of Government Efficiency'
What is Bluesky?
Bluesky is a decentralized social media app. It has a similar look and feel as X, formerly Twitter, but has some different features to bring more people into its creation.
"Unlike other closed platforms, Bluesky is an open social network that gives users choice, developers the freedom to build, and creators independence from platforms," spokesperson Emily Liu said in an emailed statement to USA TODAY.
It launched publicly in February 2024.
Who owns Bluesky?
Bluesky is owned in part by CEO Jay Graber. Also on the Bluesky board are Jabber inventor Jeremie Miller, Techdirt founder Mike Masnick and Blockchain Capital general partner Kinjal Shah, according to Bluesky.
The project was originally started in 2019 by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. Bluesky and Twitter formerly parted ways in late 2022.
Bluesky has seen 2.5 million new users over the last week
Liu said Thursday the app has seen approximately 2.5 million new signups in the last week, resulting in more than 16 million users on the platform.
She also said the platform is seeing record activity in all metrics of engagement, including likes and follows.
"Users have also been sharing feedback that they're receiving more engagement (and higher-quality engagement) on Bluesky than on other platforms despite initially having more followers elsewhere," she said. "And most importantly, that they're having fun!"
X saw its own Election Day bump, despite exodus
X did not immediately respond to USA TODAY's request for its latest user numbers.
But according to a post by XData, the platform saw a record-breaking 942 million posts worldwide and a 15.5% increase in new user sign-ups on Election Day and the following day.
At the same time, it also saw more than 115,000 account deactivations, according to NBC News, the most since Musk took over the app.
Some celebrities including Jamie Lee Curtis and Don Lemon have publically announced they are leaving X.
Contributing: KiMi Robinson
Kinsey Crowley is a trending news reporter at USA TODAY. Reach her at [email protected], and follow her on X and TikTok @kinseycrowley.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: What is Bluesky? Social media app seeing rising popularity
