After controversial changes at X: Half a million new users at Bluesky
The social media platform Bluesky is currently experiencing a large increase in users. This could be triggered by some changes at its larger competitor X.
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The short message service X – formerly Twitter – is apparently losing a host of users to its competitor Bluesky. Almost 500,000 users apparently switched from one platform to the other within a single day. This is due to some changes to the terms of use at X, which were widely criticized. The changes also affect the ability to block other users.
Bluesky reported the huge increase in users on Thursday and welcomed the new users in a post. X had previously announced that the blocking function would be changing soon. "If your posts are public, accounts that you have blocked will be able to see them, but not interact": This message was first displayed to German users on Wednesday, and X is now apparently gradually rolling it out to all accounts in stages. The announced change has raised fears among some users of harassment by unwanted and blocked contacts, who would be granted access to affected posts that they did not previously have. Tech billionaire and X owner Elon Musk already posted on his platform at the end of September that it was "high time" to change the block function.
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Users can "protect" their posts
The new feature cannot be circumvented by those who want to keep their posts visible to the public. Otherwise, users can protect their posts – with this setting to ensure that only their own followers can see their posts. Anyone who does not follow the account in question must first send a follower request with their own X account, which must be accepted. For users who want to protect their posts now, existing followers will continue to see all posts.
It is also questionable whether X's new approach to the block function complies with the European Union's Digital Services Act (DSA). This is intended to introduce stronger protection for people affected by online harassment and bullying. It remains to be seen whether the now de facto relaxed block function at X can still guarantee this according to the EU Commission.
X wants to train AI with user data
What may also have worried some X users is the announced use of X user data to train AI models. By agreeing to the latest version of X's Terms of Service, users allow the service to "analyze text and other information provided by them and otherwise provide, promote and improve the Services, including, for example, for use in our machine learning and artificial intelligence models [sic] , whether generative or otherwise, and for their training [...]." As the portal TheVerge reports, the English-language version of the GTC from October 9 did not mention AI models. Not only X, but also the Meta Group already mentions the processing of user data for artificial intelligence in its privacy policy.
Bluesky is likely to see the changes to X as a welcome marketing measure. The X alternative, which was launched by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, now has over nine million users. Bluesky has a Twitter-like user interface, but relies on an entirely different infrastructure with a decentralized server network. This was even developed at Twitter when the service was not yet owned by Elon Musk and was also intended to be used there in the future. This was dropped with the Musk takeover.
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