New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the first person to reach 1 million followers on the Bluesky platform. In recent weeks, particularly after Trump’s victory at the polls, large numbers of Democrats have decided to “move” to this social network, abandoning X, owned by Elon Musk, the president-elect’s main supporter.
According to Ocasio-Cortez, this “exodus” from one platform to another was caused by the fact that “X it’s not fun anymore and no one is obligated to be on a platform they don’t enjoy.”
Some of the people who have left Twitter have variously cited the increase in hate speech, restrictions imposed on some news organizations, and Musk’s support for President-elect Donald Trump among the main reasons that led them to say goodbye to social.
Similarweb estimates indicate that X visitors peaked this year on the day after the election. On the same day, however, the platform recorded the highest number of account deactivations since Musk took the leadership, with more than 115,000 U.S. users closing their profiles.
Jack Dorsey, former CEO of Twitter, created Bluesky in 2019. The platform’s features are roughly similar to those of the social that is now run by Musk, and include the ability to send messages to other users, as well as a “discover” and “feed” tab. Jay Graber, CEO of Bluesky, said that in the week after the election more than 1 million people opened an account on the platform.
“A lot of people are saying they’re having a lot more fun here”, Graber said, “They’re having an experience where they’re making friends online again and talking to people. That is just something that they haven’t experienced in a long time”.
According to The Hill, Ocasio-Cortez’s number of followers is second only to that of Bluesky’s official account. Her profile had been inactive for about a year. After Trump’s victory, she returned to posting on the network, writing: “Good GOD it’s nice to be in a digital space with other real human beings”.
