A handful of changes coming to X may be pushing users to its competitor. Bluesky, the decentralized social media platform, says it added 500,000 new users in a day this week. The new wave of signups could be related to several controversial changes on X in the last few days, The Verge reported.
This week, X users got a pop-up message notifying them that their posts will be visible even to users they’ve previously blocked. Those accounts still won’t be able to interact with their posts, but it’s a substantial change to how the block feature works that could open up users to harassment.
“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 behavior occurs with this update, allowing for greater transparency.”
It goes without saying that blocking is a safety issue, particularly for users facing harassment on a platform or people wanting to create distance between themselves and someone else in their life. But Elon Musk has expressed his distain for blocking, and this change to blocking was teased last month. After users got an explicit notification about it this week, Bluesky wasted no time in using it as a recruitment tool.
Mashable reported: We warned you that this change was coming – but X has just made it official: Blocking on Elon Musk’s social media platform, formerly known as Twitter, will no longer actually block users from viewing content — and now users appear to be fleeing X once again.
Essentially, a block on X will now just mean that a blocked user can’t interact with your posts. They can still see them, though, which was not the case before this change. The change to the block function was met with largely negative reactions, with even Musk supporters pointing out the user safety concerns that come with this shift.
And it appears that the change in the block function was enough for some users to flee to a new social media platform. X alternative Bluesky announced Thursday that it had gained half a million new users in the 24 hours since X made the formal announcement about the change.
TechCrunch reported: Social networking startup Bluesky, which just reported a gain of half a million users over the past day, has now soared to the top five apps on the U.S. App Store and has become the No.2 app in the Social Networking category, up from No. 181 a week ago, according to data from app intelligence firm Appfigures.
In addition, the growth is not limited to the U.S. market, either. A number of countries are showing four-digit growth in downloads, compared to last Wednesday, leading Bluesky to enter the top 10 in countries like Japan, Thailand, and Taiwan, where it’s No. 1; Hong Kong, where it’s No.2; Canada and South Korea, where it’s No. 4; and Singapore, where it’s No. 8.
On X, users are understandably upset over the company’s decision to change how the block function operates. Soon, users with public accounts can have their X posts viewed by anyone, including those they blocked, unlike before.
In my opinion, Bluesky is currently gaining a whole lot of people who don’t want to put up with X’s shenanigans anymore. This could – potentially – encourage those who are tired with Elon Musk’s X to stop using it.