Jack Dorsey Announces Bluesky, a "Decentralized Social Network" in Direct Competition to Elon's Twitter
Less than a year after eccentric billionaire Elon Musk purchased Twitter for $44 billion, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey launches Bluesky; an almost perfect replica of Twitter, but with potentially increased censorship.
Bluesky, the decentralized project that originated within Twitter, finally arrived on the Apple App Store yesterday as an invite-only social network. This offers users one of their very first glimpses of the app, which looks almost identical to Twitter, from the timeline to the profile pages.
The project is spearheaded by Twitter founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey, who has been working on the Authenticated Transfer Protocol (AT Protocol), an open-source social protocol to power the app, for months. Bluesky describes itself as a "federated social network" with separate networks existing within a single hub. AT Protocol is built based on three main ideals: account portability, algorithmic performance, and interoperability, which would allow users to transfer their account data to another Bluesky provider and give them greater control over their network experience. We’ve seen apps like TikTok and Artifact operate the same way.
Although Bluesky initially made the app available in private beta for developers in October, it seems that the company is now willing to expand the test further by releasing the app on the App Store. The website does not provide any details about when the app will become available to the public or how many testers are allowed to use it. Interested users can join a waitlist for access, which we are already a part of.
Given that the two apps look almost identical, users may wonder why they should switch to Bluesky. After all, moving to a new platform could mean losing more than a decade of posts, memories, and unique threads on Twitter.
The underlying concern may be the potential for censorship, as some folks feel that their voices are not being heard on mainstream social media platforms. There has been criticism that platforms like Twitter have not always been supportive of allowing conservative views to be expressed freely. After all, Jack Dorsey doesn’t exactly have the best track record for allowing conservatives to say whatever they want on his platforms. It's not just conservatives who are frustrated with the censorship of opposing viewpoints - people from across the political spectrum are in favor of promoting free speech. Twitter's success under Elon Musk's leadership, where all forms of speech are allowed as long as it is not harmful, highlights the value of a platform that allows for genuine discourse, even when opinions differ. Despite its innovative cross-platform features, it is unlikely that Bluesky will gain significant traction given the current climate.
Another issue that may come to plague Bluesky is the lack of engagement across the plethora of alt-social, Twitter-like platforms that cater to a certain voter demographic.
Below is a non-exhaustive list of alt-socials that have emerged as direct competition to Twitter:
Gab
Parler
Minds
MeWe
Gettr
Locals
CloutHub
Truth Social
Although some of these alt-social platforms may be well-known, they don't come close to Twitter's massive user base of over 300 million users. Also, most social media users aren't interested in joining another echo chamber where they see the same biased message being repeated endlessly. What people really want is a space where they can engage in genuine discourse, communicate openly, and express their thoughts and ideas without bias or censorship. They want a platform where breaking news stories generate a diverse range of opinions, giving them the freedom to read opposing viewpoints and form their own opinions on important issues. People don't want to be force-fed news and issues that only represent one side of the story. It's important for Jack Dorsey and the Bluesky team to take this into consideration as they move forward. Being too quick to censor differing opinions will only result in a loss of users, lack of interest, and a decline in revenue.
Safe<br>Space is currently on the waitlist Bluesky and once we are allowed on, we’ll give you all a full deep dive into the platform: the features, the user experience, and of course the potential censorship.