“Bluesky users are Twitter exiled, mostly left, which makes little conversation between different ideological positions,” says Dorian Quelle, a researcher at the University of Zurich (Switzerland) and is published today Wednesday on users and created in February 2023, Bluesky today has more than 32 million users and is one of A X, before Twitter, after his purchase by Elon Musk. “Bluesky has already incorporated most of the functions that did successful to Twitter before Musk, positioning himself as a viable alternative. It continues to grow, although few new networks manage to consolidate. It has potential, but it is soon to know if it can really be maintained as the Twitter successor, ”explains Quelle.
Although he maintains its growth, Bluesky is not likely to be a “digital public square”, a name with which one of the Twitter founders baptized his network when in 2013 he had about 200 million members. Today the media landscape has changed and text -based networks have gained more importance and it is more evident how they influence today. “In the case of Bluesky, the political inclination of the users limits the debate between different ideologies, which, for me, is key in a real public square,” says Quelle. “On the other hand, Twitter is still the home of world leaders, journalists, executive presidents and activists, representing practically all politically active groups. It is a diverse ecosystem that Bluesky cannot replicate overnight. If you really want to become the new public square, you need to continue growing at the current rhythm and wait for new migration waves that help you add users, ”he adds.
Bluesky’s growth peaks The greatest migration in its history was after the presidential elections in the US of November, when Elon Musk’s support to Donald Trump became more evident. Those most recent waves are out of the scientific article, ranging from February 2023 to May 2024, so it is possible that Bluesky’s homogeneity has grown more. Even so, not all Bluesky users have the same origin, according to Ignacio Castro, a professor in Queen Mary University of London and who has investigated Bluesky in the past: “There were already many Japanese users, many Brazilians migrated when X was blocked in Brazil and we also saw a jump in the number of users also by the Twitter block in Indonesia. It is quite possible that these users have fun from those who arrive in Bluesky because Musk acquires Twitter, changes the privacy policy of X or for the elections in the US, ”explains Castro.
Despite the ideological closeness, polarization is still present in Bluesky in very controversial matters. The article studies the diversity of opinions on Israel and Palestine on the network, which remains remarkable. The article collects the messages sent during and after the October attack of 2023. “After the attacks on Israel, the percentage of neutral publications decreases,” says the text, “while the pro-palestinian positions and pro-Israeli positions increase both. In the next ten months, Pro-Palestinian messages continue to grow constantly, to become the absolute majority of publications in January 2024 ″.
These indications of polarization do not prevent the option that Bluesky ends up being a bubble: “Homogeneity does not completely eliminate disagreement, but suggests that Bluesky could be less polarized than Twitter/X. However, it can also end up working more like a bubble, where people barely interact with opinions that challenge their political vision, ”explains that.
One of Bluesky’s great advantages for researchers is that it has become an open source of data and information now that X, by order of Musk, has closed access to academics. Thus, during the next few years they can continue to observe how a new network evolves, with its own characteristics. For example, if the option that each user can create their own information menu, thanks to the variety of algorithms offered by Bluesky, is something that is used more and more. For now it seems a scarce function: “Only 0.09% of all chronologies are personalized. Recently new options with feeds They include ads has the potential to change the panorama, ”says Castro, adds that other Bluesky characteristics such as the“ packs to start ” [grupos de usuarios agregados por tema a quien seguir al llegar a la red] They have their audience: “They have a clear effect on the popularity of users who are part of one of those packs and reinforce the effect that popular accounts become even more popular.”
Another issue that analyzes the study is the amount of misinformation, one of the great problems in networks of the last decade. In Bluesky there are hardly any. The authors have looked if users share many links to doubtful sources and it is not so. Again, it is something that can evolve and change. But if on Facebook and if in Bluesky there are mostly progressive without opposition, it is unlikely that a lot of little contrasted circulates: “I would say that misinformation circulates much less frequently in Bluesky than in X, and when it appears, it tends to be less shameless or extreme,” says Quelle.
