Bluesky beckons but it's not Twitter's true heir

Amid explosive growth, the app offers a welcome reprieve from Musk's X, but the dream of a universal digital town square? That moment has passed.

- Bhavan Jaipragas

My Bluesky account is live: bio dutifully proclaiming my professional bona fides, profile picture in place, and that all-important disclaimer: "opinions are my own".

No posts yet - just lurking. But honestly, how could I resist? It was pure fear of missing out on the buzz surrounding the hottest social media platform of the moment.

With 23 million users now "skeeting" - yes, that's the term Bluesky's rapid rise is hard to ignore. Just weeks ago, in mid-October, it had 12 million users. It is now adding about two users per second. It's hard not to tout it as the heir apparent to Elon Musk's X, formerly Twitter, which many would argue has devolved into one of the most bot- and troll-infested corners of the internet.

The global chatterati - the usual terminally online suspects: journalists, hyper-opinionated types from Singapore and far beyond - have flocked to Bluesky.

In doing so, they - or rather, we (let's not kid ourselves, this is my tribe) - are finally making good on our performative threats to quit X ever since Musk bought it in 2022.

So, what changed?

For starters, Donald Trump's political comeback didn't help matters. Then there's Musk's relentless gloating. But perhaps the most significant factor is the site's overall "enshittification" - a term so perfect you can't believe it didn't exist sooner - coined by technology activist Cory Doctorow to describe how internet platforms decay as they become overrun and rot from within.

Since Musk took the helm, X has rapidly spiralled into near-unusability. Try scrolling through a thread or posting a comment without encountering bot replies or some dodgy account hawking explicit links no sane person would dare click.

The dam broke. The exodus - excuse me, the Xodus (yes, the pun is old, but it fits) - was on.