Bluesky Records Massive Growth As Elon Musk’s X Changes Spark Outrage
Bluesky, a decentralised social platform, says it attracted 500,000 new users in one day this week.
The massive growth was reported as Elon Musk announced major changes on X.
One of the changes is Twitter’s new privacy policy, which allows third-party developers to train AI models on user data beginning November 15.
The policy has consumers concerned about data privacy because there is no opt-out.
the X terms of service page reads, in part: “You agree that this license includes the right for us to analyze text and other information you provide … for use with and training of our machine learning and artificial intelligence models, whether generative or another type.” That clause didn’t exist as of October 9th, according to the Wayback Machine.
In its new version, “blocking” someone still allows them to read your posts and profile, removing an essential tool for some users to shield themselves from harassment on the platform.
This appears to have been the tipping point for many people who were on the fence about staying on the site.
“Today, block can be used by users to share and hide harmful or private information about those they’ve blocked,” an official X account posted. “Users will be able to see if such behaviour occurs with this update, allowing for greater transparency.”
Newsng gathered that the number of signups skyrocketed, causing the website to go down briefly. Bluesky, for its part, is relishing the opportunity to capitalise on Musk’s error.
“At Bluesky, we take online safety seriously,” the social media platform’s official account wrote on X. “If you want to block someone, you can!”
We earlier reported that As a result of a ban by the Supreme Court in Brazil, a growing number of Brazilians have turned to Bluesky as an alternative social network.
