Bluesky, a microblogging platform, has seen a rapid surge in new users, gaining a million users over the past three days. This spike in activity follows a decision by Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes to ban X, formerly known as Twitter, escalating an ongoing legal feud with the platform.
Bluesky, which reached this milestone earlier this afternoon, now ranks as the number one free app on the Brazilian App Store, surpassing Meta’s Threads, which holds the second spot.
Jay Graber, CEO of Bluesky, praised Brazil’s decision, stating, “Good job Brazil, you made the right choice.” This growth is notable given that Bluesky only became publicly available in February. Despite its smaller user base compared to competitors X and Threads, Bluesky has embraced its niche position, referring to itself as “the short king of social apps.” The platform reported having over 6 million users as of May 2024.
Bluesky was initially introduced in 2019 as a Twitter-supported project aimed at developing an open, decentralized social protocol. It has since evolved into an independent public benefit corporation, with Twitter founder Jack Dorsey stepping down from its board earlier this year.
In contrast, X has been embroiled in a legal dispute with Brazil’s Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, primarily over X’s failure to block certain accounts accused of spreading election-related disinformation. Earlier this month, X indicated plans to cease operations in Brazil. Justice Moraes responded by threatening a ban unless X appointed a legal representative in the country. On Friday, he enforced the ban and warned of penalties for users attempting to bypass the restriction using VPNs.
As the ban was set to take effect, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva appeared to prepare his followers for the transition by sharing links to his other social media profiles, notably beginning with Bluesky.
