Image: © Koshiro/Stock.adobe.com
Bluesky has been capitalising on the legal battles between X and Brazilian authorities and managed to gain 1m new followers in three days.
One app’s loss seems to be another’s gain, as Bluesky has claimed a massive wave of followers during the same weekend that X got banned in Brazil.
X was banned in the country by Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes after failing to name a new legal representative within a 24-hour deadline. The ban means that Brazil’s 21m users are unable to access the site.
In the days leading up to the ban, many users flocked to Bluesky as an alternative option. The decentralised social media app posted on August 31, claiming it had gained 1m users over the previous three days.
Bluesky wrote the post in both English and Portuguese – the national language of Brazil – and wrote a second post in Portuguese that translates to “now this is a Brazillian app”.
The app was also recently number one on the free iPhone app chart in Brazil, with Meta’s Threads in second place. Bluesky CEO Jay Graber shared an image of the chart and said “good job Brazil, you made the right choice”.
The app had been actively attempting to capitalise on the dispute between X and Brazilian authorities in the days leading up to the ban. Posting on X, Bluesky said “Hey Brazil, the sky is bluer here” along with a link to download the app.
Bluesky was announced in 2019 as a Twitter-funded project that aimed to create an “open and decentralised standard for social media”. It only became fully accessible in February this year but appears to have grown steadily since then. The app announced open-source moderation tools in March, allowing users to choose their own filters and hide certain posts.
This is not the first time one social media app has profited from issues with another. Various alternatives to X gained attention after Elon Musk took over the platform formally known as Twitter.
The dispute between X and Brazilian authorities comes as the app is facing scrutiny around the world for its content moderation. X had been ordered to block certain Brazil accounts amid a crackdown on so-called “digital militias” that were accused of spreading fake news during former president Jair Bolsonaro’s reign.
X described these requests as illegal and claimed Judge Moraes was attempting to “censor his political opponents”.
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