Bluesky gains 1 million users after the US election as users X | give up social media

The microblogging site says it now has more than 15 million users, up from nine million in September.

Social media platform Bluesky has gained more than a million new users since the US presidential election, benefiting from the exodus of people dissatisfied with the direction of X under billionaire Elon Musk.

The microblogging site said Wednesday that it had reached 15 million users, up from about nine million in September.

Founded in 2019 by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, Bluesky has earned a reputation as a haven for left-leaning users dissatisfied with X’s rightward turn under Musk’s leadership.

Some Bluesky users have cited Musk’s alliance with US President-elect Donald Trump and the increase in hateful content on X as reasons for jumping onto the platform.

“Hello less hateful world,” billionaire Mark Cuban, who supported Vice President Kamala Harris during the election, posted on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, The Guardian newspaper announced it would no longer publish content on X due to the “disturbing content” on the “toxic media platform,” including racism and conspiracy theories.

“The US presidential election campaign has only underscored what we have long feared: that X is a toxic media platform and that its owner, Elon Musk, has been able to use his influence to shape political discourse,” The Guardian said in a statement on its website website.

“We believe the benefits it brings on

Bluesky himself has played up his image as a refuge for disaffected liberals.

After it was reported that Musk would be watching the election results alongside Trump, the platform posted

X has seen several waves of user exits since Musk took over the platform in October 2022, although the site still has a much larger user base than Bluesky.

About 115,000 U.S.-based web visitors deactivated their X accounts the day after the U.S. election, the largest single-day decline under Musk, according to Internet traffic analyzer Similarweb.