Since the US election, Elon Musk’s pro-Donald Trump views and an increase in hate speech have caused hundreds of thousands of users to abandon X.
As hate speech and false information spread on Elon Musk’s X, many people are attempting to get off the site.
Although users have been leaving the microblogging site that was once known as Twitter, many believe that Elon Musk, the company’s owner, may have been the reason for the widespread abandonment of X. In recent months, Musk has transformed the social media platform into a platform for promoting US President-elect Donald Trump both during and after his successful election campaign.
Why are users unhappy with X?
Musk’s comments regarding the platform’s neutrality seem out of date now that he is leading Trump’s administration’s new Department of Government Efficiency. Musk stated in 2022 that “Twitter must be politically neutral, which effectively means upsetting the far right and the far left equally, in order to deserve public trust.”
Additionally, he stated that Trump would be 82 years old at the conclusion of his term, which is too old to lead any organization, much less the US. This is no longer true for someone who attended Trump’s rallies and appeared in family photos as “Uncle Elon” and was present at his most intimate moments.
Many believe that the alt-right, hate speech, and bots have taken away the space for free speech on X since Musk’s loyalty to Trump became evident. “Truth Social premium” refers to Trump’s hard-right social media platform, which experts warned The Guardian is likely to join with X in the near future.
What is Bluesky?
With 16 million users, including 1 million on a single day last week, Bluesky is emerging as X’s newest competitor as it experiences its biggest exodus to date.
In order to create a “open and decentralized standard for social media,” former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey started it as an internal project. Despite having only 16 million users, Bluesky rose to the top of the app store as the preferred option for X refugees, compared to X’s around 317 million users.
Why is Bluesky better than X?
Users are preferring Bluesky as it offers them the chance to heavily moderate the algorithm that drives what type of content they see and create custom feeds based on special interests.
It also allows users to have website addresses as their handles which could act as a verification tool for journalists and public figures as they could use a company’s website in their handle.
Is Fediverse the future of social media?
According to reports, some tech aficionados are thrilled about the X-odus because it may usher in the “Fediverse” era of decentralized social networks. These ecosystems can aid in the interconnection of more recent social networks, such as Bluesky.
Nobody can foresee what will happen to X, but if the relationship between Musk and the president deteriorates, forecasts range from complete collapse to switching to an anti-Trump platform.
Another concern is that X might turn into a training environment for Musk’s xAI business, which uses user interactions to create profitable AI models for the richest man in the world.
