Elon Musk's X, previously known as Twitter, was recently banned in Brazil by the country's Supreme Court. As a result, the billionaire-backed social media platform is now unavailable in the South American country. During this period, Bluesky has seen a surge, adding over 2 million new users in just 4 days. TechCrunch reports that this rapid increase in users led to some experiencing a "Not Enough Resources" error as the platform’s engineers worked to expand server capacity to accommodate the higher demand.
Bluesky has also become the most downloaded app in Brazil, far outpacing Meta’s X rival, Threads. According to Appfigures, Bluesky’s downloads have surged by an astonishing 1,018,952 per cent.
Why Is Bluesky Becoming The Alternative To X In Brazil?
One key factor driving Brazilians towards Bluesky over Meta’s Threads may be its interface, which closely resembles X (formerly Twitter), including a timeline that mirrors the layout of the platform now owned by Elon Musk. Another reason for the shift from X to Bluesky could be its decentralised structure, which makes it more resilient to shutdowns or control compared to X, whose ban might be politically motivated.
For context, a significant difference between Bluesky and X is that Bluesky relies on users to manage content, while X handles content moderation itself. A Bluesky engineer recently reported that likes on the platform have risen to 106.4 million and followers have reached 100.8 million.
Bluesky, originally conceived during Jack Dorsey's tenure as Twitter CEO in 2019, aims to offer an open and decentralised social media experience. Like Mastodon's ActivityPub, Bluesky aims to allow users to switch between different Bluesky providers and offer greater control over the content displayed in their feeds. The combination of Bluesky’s decentralised approach and its user interface similar to X appears to be attracting Brazilians to the platform over Threads. Although both apps are missing some features available on X, Bluesky may be more appealing to former X users who prefer a familiar interface and don’t want to start from scratch on a new platform.