A large number of users are leaving Elon Musk’s X (previously Twitter) in response to his most recent reforms, and many of them are switching to rival Bluesky, a decentralised social media network founded by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. In just 12 hours, Bluesky had over 100,000 new sign-ups after Musk acknowledged a significant change to the “Block” button, causing its servers to momentarily breakdown. Bluesky’s full blocking function, which keeps barred users from seeing any postings, attracted half a million new members in total.
Although they can no longer interact with public postings, barred users will still be able to view them thanks to the change at X. In the past, blocking someone prevented them from viewing any of the blocker’s content, strengthening the defense against trolls and stalkers. Serious concerns regarding online harassment and safety are raised by critics who claim that the new approach puts users at risk by permitting blocked individuals to continue monitoring posts.
Further dissatisfaction has also been sparked by X’s revised privacy statement. Unless users specifically opt out, the platform will now permit third-party collaborators to use public information for AI model training. Artists and content producers have expressed annoyance about their work being utilised without permission, extending the use of data beyond Musk’s Grok AI. Many users believe that in order to give them greater control over their data, this opt-out mechanism needs to be reversed.
X argues in favour of the modifications, claiming that blocking can be abused to conceal sensitive or dangerous information. Critics contend that this justification ignores the more significant problem of user safety. With X trending on the platform and some wondering if the contentious adjustments will result in X being taken down from app stores, Bluesky is still taking advantage of its competitor’s mistakes as criticism grows.