X’s loss is Bluesky’s gain. In just a few short days, rival social media platform Bluesky has captured more than two million new users, a hefty increase for a social network that held only around six million members before this week. The surge comes after Elon Musk’s X was banned and blocked in Brazil over political issues, prompting many Brazilians to migrate to Bluesky.
In a post on Monday, Bluesky proclaimed: “TWO MILLION new people in the last week! A very warm welcome.” To hammer home the point that a lot of the growth came from Brazil, Bluesky added: “DOIS MILHÕES de pessoas novas na última semana! uma calorosa recepção a todos!”
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A Bluesky stats page also recorded the flood of new users, showing a total of 8,747,821 at last count. A Tuesday post from a Bluesky engineer marked the jump in not only users but also likes, follows, and reposts.
New users on Bluesky climbed by 2.11 million during the prior 96 hours compared with just 26,000 in the 96-hour period from a week ago. Looking at the same periods, likes grew to 104.6 million compared with 13 million, follows rose to 100.8 million compared with 1.4 million, and reposts increased to 11 million compared with 1.3 million.
Bluesky can thank Brazil for much of the gain.
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A Brazilian judge had ordered that accounts on X be blocked following accusations that supporters of former right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro were spreading disinformation on the platform. Court orders and fines were threatened should X refuse to comply. Musk initially fought the ban while bad-mouthing the judge but then finally capitulated.
With X banned, many Brazilians have since turned to Bluesky. On Friday, the same day Justice Moraes instituted the total ban, Bluesky said that around 200,000 new users from Brazil had signed up over the prior few days and that the number “continues to grow by the minute,” the AP reported.
However, that’s a drop in the bucket compared to the 21 million X users in Brazil, so there’s still a lot of room to grow each minute.
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Launched in 2023 for iPhone users and then opened earlier this year to anyone via the web, Bluesky has been one of several social networks designed to offer people an alternative to X without the Musk baggage. Unlike the platform formerly known as Twitter, Bluesky is a decentralized network in which you control your own data. Otherwise, the platform is similar to X with the usual feeds, posts, notifications, direct messages, and other options.
