Category Archives: Social Media

Bluesky Has 20M+ Users After Hitting 15M On November 13

Bluesky, Social Media

Bluesky, the social media network and X competitor has been benefiting from a surge of departures from the Elon-Musk-owned app formerly known as Twitter, TechCrunch reported.

Today, Bluesky has hit a major milestone: it’s topped 20 million users. What’s more, new data indicates the app’s rapid growth is seeing it close the gap with another prominent X rival, Instagram Threads, across metrics like daily active users and website visits.

Bluesky’s user base is still much smaller than Threads, which recently reported north of 275 million monthly active users. However, if Bluesky’s current rate of growth holds up, I could catch up with Threads in time, market intelligence form Similarweb believes.

The Musk-owned app X remains dominant, though, with a U.S. daily active user count that’s more than 10 times larger than Bluesky at present.

The firm’s data also indicates that Bluesky overtook Threads in daily website visits in both the U.S. and the U.K., which signals strong interest from potential new users. Globally, daily website visits on Bluesky haven’t yet surpassed Threads, but its come very close as of mid-November.

Engadget reported Bluesky has passed the 20 million user mark as the app continues its recent surge in growth. The decentralized service, which reached 15 million users less than a week ago, has just about tripled its user base in the last three months.

Though it’s still smaller than its rivals on Threads and X, Bluesky’s current momentum is notable. The app has had several days over the last week where it added a million new users in a single 24-hour period.

That’s similar to the growth rate of Threads, which has been getting a million new sign-up a day for “going on three months,” according to an update last week from Meta’s Adam Mosseri. Threads reached 275 million monthly users this month and has added at least 15 million since the start of November.

And while Bluesky remains the underdog, there are other signs it’s gaining momentum. Bluesky has been the top app in Apple’s App Store for the last six days and has been the top non-gaming app in Google Play for four days, according to data provide by the analytics firm App Figure. Meta’s Threads is currently in the number two spot on the App Store.

The Hollywood Reporter posted: “#Xodus: Bluesky Hits 20M Users as People Continue to Flee X”

A trickle is becoming a flood for Bluesky, the social media company that has seen spectacular growth since the presidential election. On Tuesday, the microblogging platform hit 20 million users, after averaging 1 million new users per day over he past five days.

Bluesky has been one of the main beneficiaries of millions of users leaving Elon Musk’s X, as the site formerly known as Twitter descends into a mess of bots, extreme content, crypto scams, ads, pornography, racism, transphobia and misinformation.

In my opinion, a large number of people are moving to Bluesky and leaving Elon Musk’s X. This could be a really good thing for Bluesky.

Trump Media Loses $19.2 Million In Third Quarter

Social Media

Trump Media, which experienced a flurry of trading activity Tuesday as a possible proxy for Donald Trump’s presidency chances, revealed after the closing bell Tuesday a loss for the third quarter along with a sight drop in already-meager revenue, CNBC reported.

The Truth Social parent lost $19.2 million during the period. Revenue fell 5.6% to just $1.01 million from the year-earlier period. The filing was not telegraphed to investors beforehand and came as a surprise to traders not expecting it on Election Day, the very day the former president and Trump Media majority owner squares off against Vice President Kamala Harris.

Shares rose more than 6% in after-hours trading following the filing. Earlier in the day, the stock gave up an 18.6% surge to close 1.2% lower. The shares could move in the after hours or on Wednesday depending on the election results.

Trump Media, which trades under the ticket DJT, has seen volatile trading lately. Over the past week, it is down more than 34%. However it is still 93% year to date.

Volume for the stock more than doubled its average 30-day volume. 

Fortune reported Donald Trump has posted about his personal wealth for decades. But a dollar figure has never been publicly shared — or settled upon. Now that he’s been elected president for the second time, his actually net worth could swing dramatically.

For one, as president, he’ll earn an annual $400,000 salary. For another, he’s currently raking in enormous sums on paper thanks to his hundreds of shares in the parent company of publicly listed social networking site, Trump Media & Technology Group Corp.

The share price of the hugely popular social media platform Truth Social’s parent company has grown over 100% since January and more than 85% over the past month.

Analysts have spent years attempting to ascertain Trump’s precise net worth — and Trump hasn’t helped, by refusing to publish his tax returns over the years. 

What we do know: Trump came into a sizable inheritance from his father Fred Trump’s real estate dealings, and then Trump went on to make major real estate investments for himself, and he secured a bevy of TV licensing deals in the early aughts.

But he also has, in recent years, been buried under a mountain of lawsuits and settlements.

Nonetheless, Bloomberg says real estate — Trump’s original industry — is the main source of his fortune.

Gizmodo reported Donald Trump has won the presidency and businesses connected with him and his allies are soaring. According to early financial reports, winners include banks, crypto-related stocks, and private prison companies. All of the work people in the financial game.

Trump Media & Technology Group’s plummeted in the early hours of the election on Tuesday as people who waited to see who would be elected president. It was up on Monday but crashed so hard during the election that trading of the stock was briefly halted. On November 3, it hit a low of $32.80 a share.

In my opinion, I believe that people who watched the race for the presidency live on TV are either elated or angry about the outcome. 

The US FTC Releases Four Year Study On Social Media Sites Collecting Data

Social Media

The Federal Trade Commission posted a Press Release titled: FTC Staff Report Finds Large Social Media and Video Streaming Companies Have Engaged In Vast Surveillance of Users with Lax Privacy Controls and Inadequate Safeguards for Kids and Teens.

A new Federal Trade Commission staff report that examines the data collection and use practices of major social media and video streaming services shows they engaged in vast surveillance of consumers in order to monetize their personal information while failing to adequately protect users online, especially children and teens.

The staff report is based on responses to 6(b) orders issued in December 2020 to nine companies including some of the largest social media and video streaming services: Amazon.com, Inc., which owns gaming platform Twitch; Facebook Inc. (now Meta Platforms, Inc.); YouTube LLC; Twitter, Inc. (now X Corp); Snap Inc; ByteDance Ltd., which owns the video-sharing platform TikTok; Discord Inc,; Reddit, Inc.; and WhatsApp Inc.

The orders asked for information about how the companies collect, track and use personal and demographic information, how they determine which ads and other content are shown to consumers, whether and how they apply algorithms or data analytics to personal and demographic information, and how their practice impact children and teens.

The Guardian reported social media and online video companies are collecting huge troves of your personal information on and off their websites or apps and sharing it with a wide range of third-party entities, a new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) staff report on nine tech companies confirms.

The FTC report published on Thursday looked at the data gathering practices of Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube, Discord, Reddit, Amazon, Snap, TikTok, and Twitter/X between January 2019 and 31 December 2020. The majority of the companies’ business models incentivized tracking how people engaged with their platforms, collecting their personal data and using it to determine what content and ads users see on their feeds, the report states.

CBS News reported child advocates have long complained that federal child privacy laws let social media services off the hook provided their products are not directed at kids and that their policies formally bar minors on their sites. Big tech companies also often claim not to know how many kids use their platforms, critics have noted.

The report recommends steps, including federal legislation, to limit surveillance and give consumers rights over their data.

Congress is also moving to hold tech companies accountable for how online content affects kids. In July, the Senate overwhelmingly passed bipartisan legislation aimed at protecting children called the Kids Online Safety Act. The bill would require companies strengthen kids’ privacy and give parents more control over what content their children see online.

In my opinion, I think the FTC is correct about not only providing their press release, but also to alert parents that not all social media sites are safe for their children and teens.

Supreme Court Rules Public Officials Can Block Social Media Followers

Social Media, ,

The Supreme Court ruled Friday that public officials may block people on social media in certain circumstances, tossing aside challenges against local government officials in Michigan and California who blocked followers who were critical of them on Facebook, CNN reported.

In an unanimous opinion written by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, the court set a clearer standard for when public officials are state actors online and when they can have more control over their social media presence. A second opinion dealing with a related dispute was unsigned and there were no noted dissents.

According to CNN, in an era when public officials often communicate with voters through social media, the cases raised important First Amendment questions about whether those pages were private or whether they are an extension of the government. Some of the pages included information that appeared official alongside personal posts showing the family dog.

“When a government official posts about job-related topics on social-media, it can be difficult to tell whether the speech is official or private,” Barrett wrote.

ArsTechnica posted a headline: “Public officials can block haters — but only sometimes, SCOTUS rules.” There are some circumstances where government officials are allowed to block people from commenting on their social media pages, the Supreme Court said.

According to the Supreme Court, the key question is whether officials are speaking as private individuals or on behalf of the state when posting online. Issuing two opinions, the Supreme Court declined to set a clear standard for when personal social media use constitutes state speech, leaving each unique case to be decided by lower courts.

Instead, SCOTUS provided a test for courts to decide first if someone is or isn’t speaking on behalf of the state on their social media pages, and then if they actually have authority to act on what they post online.

The ruling suggests that government officials can block people from commenting on personal social media pages where they discuss official business when that speech can not be attributed to the state and merely reflects personal remarks. This means that blocking is acceptable when the official has no authority to speak for the state or exercise that authority when speaking on their page.

NBC News reported the Supreme Court ruled Friday that members of the public in some circumstances can sue public officials for blocking them on social media platforms, deciding a pair of cases against the backdrop of former President Donald Trump’s contentious and colorful use of Twitter.

The court ruled unanimously that officials can be deemed “state actors” when making use of social media and can therefore face litigation if they block or mute a member of the public.

In ruling that it can, the court found that blocking someone from following an official constitutes a government action that could give rise to a constitutional claim under the Constitution’s First Amendment, which protects free speech.

In my opinion, we might see less posts from public officials on social media, considering the SCOTUS decision. That said, it is unclear to me if SCOTUS is requiring “state actors” to put up with angry people on social media.

 

Supreme Court Questions Florida And Texas Social Media Laws

Social Media,

The Supreme Court on Monday appeared to have deep concerns of state laws enacted in Florida and Texas that would prohibit social media platforms from throttling certain political viewpoints, CNN reported.

The high-stakes battle gives the nation’s highest court an enormous say in how millions of Americans get their news and information, as well as whether sites such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok should be able to make their own decisions about how to moderate spam, hate speech, and election misinformation.

According to CNN, the state laws ban online platforms from removing posts that express opinions, such as political content. States say the laws are necessary to keep the social media platforms from discriminating against conservatives.

At least at this stage of the case, however, it’s unclear how the justices will rule. Several of the justices were unsettled by the possibility that the laws could be applied to other sites, like Uber, without violating the Constitution. Some of the nine, meanwhile, signaled a desire to send the case back down to lower courts for further review about the potential sweep of the laws’ provisions beyond social media platforms.

NPR reported that the Supreme Court wrestled Monday with a pair of cases that could help define the future of the internet.

Legal experts say they’re the most important First Amendment cases in a generation. The question is whether states like Florida and Texas can force big social media platforms to carry content the platforms find hateful or objectionable.

According to NPR, Republicans in Florida and Texas took action, signing sweeping laws that prevent the largest platforms from banning users based on their political viewpoints and require them to provide an individual explanation to users about why their posts have been edited or removed.

NBC News eported that the Supreme Court on Monday grappled with knotty free speech questions as it weighted laws in Florida and Texas that seek to impose restrictions on the ability of social media companies to moderate content.

According to NBC News, after almost four hours of oral arguments, a majority of the justices appeared skeptical that states can prohibit platforms from barring or limiting the reach of some problematic users without violating the free speech rights of the companies.

But justices from across the ideological spectrum raised fears about the power and influence of big social media platforms like YouTube and Facebook and questioned whether the laws should be blocked entirely.

In my opinion, the Supreme Court justices are going to take some time before they come to a conclusion about what to do with the cases from Florida and Texas. Eventually, they will either release their decision or choose to not step into this particular case.

Pew Research Center Reported About Teens Use of Social Media

Social Media, ,

Despite negative headlines and growing concerns about social media’s impact on youth, teens continue to use these platforms at high rates – with some describing their social media use as “almost constant,” according to a new Pew Research Center survey of U.S. teens, Pew Research Center reported.

The survey – conducted Sept. 26 – Oct. 23, 2023, among 1,453 13-17-year-olds – covered social media, internet use an device ownership among teens. 

Here’s a look at the key findings related to online platforms:

YouTube continues to dominate. Roughly nine-in-ten teens say they use YouTube, making it the most widely used platform measured in our survey.

TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram remain popular among teens: Majorities of teens ages 13 to 17 say they use TikTok (63%), Snapchat (60%) and Instagram (59%). For older teens ages 15 to 17, these shares are about seven-in-ten.

Teens are less likely to be using Facebook and Twitter (recently renamed X) than they were a decade ago: Facebook once dominated the social media landscape from 71% in 2014-2015 to 33% today. Twitter, which was renamed X in July 2023, has also seen its teen user base shrink during the past decade – albeit at a less steep decline than Facebook.

Teen’s site and app usage has changed little in the past year. The share of teens using these platforms has remained relatively stable since spring 2022, when the Center last surveyed on these topics. For example, the percentage of teens who use TikTok is statistically unchanged since last year. 

And for the first time, we asked teens about BeReal: 13% report using this app.

By gender: Teen girls are more likely than boys to say they almost constantly use TikTok (22% vs. 12%) and Snapchat (17% vs 12%). But there are little to no differences in the shares of boys and girls who report almost constantly using YouTube, Instagram and Facebook.

By race and ethnicity: We also see differences by race and ethnicity in how much time teens report spending on these platforms.

Larger shares of Black and Hispanic teens report being on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok almost constantly, compared with a smaller share of White teens who say the same.

Hispanic teens stand out in TikTok and Snapchat use. For instance, 32% of Hispanic teens say they are on TikTok almost constantly, compared with 20% of Black teens and 10% of White teens.

CNN reported that online safety experts have previously raised concerns about the impact of Instagram – and the way it promotes so-called social comparison between users and celebrities, as well as their peers – on young girls. Meta has since released various feature updates meant to make it harder for users, particularly teens, to fall down content rabbit holes that could harm their mental health, including “take a break” reminders.

The Pew Research Center’s report also offers a stark reminder of a disparity that can make it harder for teens not only to access social media, but also access to schoolwork and complete homework: 10% of the teen respondents said they did not have access to a desktop or laptop computer at home.

Personally, I find this information about teens social media use to be fascinating. My generation of teenagers only had access to hand-written notes on paper, that were then folded into interacted shapes and handed to the intended recipient.

X Rival Bluesky Hits 2M Users

Social Media

Bluesky, the company building a decentralized alternative to Twitter/X, announced it has hit 2 million users – up by another million since September, despite remaining an invite-only app. It also revealed its timeframe regarding other key goals, indicating that it planned to have a public web interface go live by the end of the month and would launch federation by early next year, TechCrunch reported.

The latter is one of the most important differentiating factors between Bluesky and X, as it would allow Bluesky to function as a more open social network. This means it will work more like Mastodon where users can pick and choose which servers to join and move their accounts around at will. This is what Bluesky today says makes it “billionaire proof” – a swipe at Elon Musk’s ownership of Twitter, now called X.

The Bluesky Team posted on its blog “Toward Federation and an Open Network”:

Toward Federation

Imagine you’ve spent 10 years building your audience and making friends on a social platform, only to decide that it’s no longer for you. When you leave this platform, you’re essentially leaving behind all of your relationships, your saved posts, and more.

We’ve been there too, and we’re similarly tired of packing our bags each time another platform winds down and everyone collectively moves to the next big thing. Signing up for a new social network every few years and losing all our data on former ones shouldn’t be the price that we have to pay in order to keep our relationships online.

That’s why our biggest priority right now is launching federation, which is timelines for early next year. This is one of the core features of Bluesky that makes it “billionaire-proof” – you’ll always have the freedom to choose (and to exit) instead of being held to the whims of private companies or black box algorithms. And wherever you go, your friends and relationships will be there too.

More exciting news: around the end of this month, we’ll release a public web interface. With this, you’ll be able to view posts on Bluesky without being logged in on an account.

This will make posts on Bluesky much more accessible, which will be especially useful for real-time commentary and breaking news.

As a reminder, Bluesky is a public social network, so your posts, likes, etc. have always been publicly accessible through the API. We designed Bluesky with the openness of the internet in mind, and you can think of your profile as a blog on the internet…

Mashable reported that X rival and social media platform Bluesky now boasts over 2 million users, as announced by the team on Thursday. A year after its creation, the Jack Dorsey-backed app marked the milestone while detailing its pending plan of creating a “truly open social network” – and adding a major feature from Twitter.

According to Mashable, Bluesky, a decentralized social media app, is set to add a public web interface, which means users will be able to view posts without being logged in on an account – Bluesky currently still requires an invite code to sign up to its platform.

Personally, I am enjoying Bluesky a lot more than I do Twitter/X. I no longer find it comfortable to use Twitter/X because the majority of what X’s algorithm shows me are things I have no interest in at all.