Bluesky Tops Charts After Brazil Bans X

A Brazilian court’s ban on X (formerly Twitter) appears to drive gains for its competitors, particularly Bluesky

In the past two days, the microblogging platform reported experiencing “all-time highs” in activity, with 500,000 new users joining.

This announcement was made late Friday. It is Brazil’s top-ranked free iPhone app, with Meta’s Threads at number two.

Bluesky CEO Jay Graber expressed his satisfaction with Brazil’s decision, stating, “Good job, you made the right choice,” in response to the rankings.

The platform’s development is particularly remarkable considering that it only fully opened to the public in February and winkly acknowledged its small size (particularly in comparison to rivals X and Threads) by referring to itself as “the short king of social apps).”

According to the organization, the number of users exceeded six million as of May 2024.

Bluesky was initially introduced 2019 as a Twitter-supported initiative to develop a decentralized, open social protocol.

Jack Dorsey, the founder of Twitter, departed the board earlier this year, and the organization has since evolved into an autonomous public benefit corporation.

In the meantime, Elon Musk’s X has been embroiled in a legal dispute with Justice Alexandre de Moraes of the Brazilian Supreme Court regarding the company’s refusal to restrict specific accounts as part of a broader effort to combat what Moraes deemed to be election disinformation.

X announced earlier this month that it would cease operations in Brazil. Moraes subsequently informed the company that it would be prohibited from operating in the country unless it designated a legal representative.

On Friday, he implemented his threat and issued fines to users who attempted to bypass the prohibition by employing a VPN.

Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva appeared to bid farewell to his X followers by linking to his other social media accounts, beginning with Bluesky, as the ban approached.