It took a decade to build Twitter, but over the past year, CEO Elon Musk has been knocking down some of the platform’s load-bearing pillars in the name of “free speech.” By altering the algorithm to favor himself and right-leaning accounts and allowing bots to run rampant, Musk’s changes have led users and advertisers to look for alternatives — like Bluesky, the decentralized platform created by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey in 2019.

• In the last 90 days, Bluesky’s user base has doubled in size, reaching record engagement levels on Nov. 13 — with the platform surpassing 15.5M users, about 2.5% of Twitter’s total user base.
• According to the Financial Times, Bluesky’s fast growth aligns with a record level of X account deactivations, which recently topped 100K per day in the run-up to the election.

Call it an X-odus: Musk’s moves have caused a significant drop in X’s value, with Fidelity marking down the platform’s valuation by three-quarters since Musk’s takeover. On the other hand, Bluesky’s customizable options — where users can build personal feeds and control who they see and don’t see —along with its ad-free environment, put it in direct contrast to Musk’s X. With prominent content creators on Twitter increasingly worried about the platform going up in flames, Bluesky could emerge as the biggest beneficiary of the “X-odus.” However, there’s always the risk it could end up in the margins like Meta’s Threads.