Goodbye Twitter, Hello Bluesky

I cancelled my Twitter account last week. I’ve been a member since 2009, I think. My request to archive my data through the account tools went unanswered. After 48+ hours, I decided I had nothing worth preserving. Really, I only ever “lurked” on Twitter. You can now find me on Bluesky.

Elon Ruined Twitter

Since Elon Musk took over, Twitter’s principles and moderation have declined significantly. That’s saying a lot given the state of Twitter prior to Musk’s involvement. I worked on a project in the 2010s¹ to detect breaking news events through Twitter’s social media feeds for Reuters - Reuters News Tracer. I’m well aware of the dark side of social media. I had to scrub through a lot of it as we developed the algorithms and UI for Tracer.

Musk and his team have normalized misinformation and hate speech, particularly during the US election cycle. See this Techcrunch article on changes Musk has enacted. What concerned me most were the changes that allowed the spread of misinformation - especially information that Musk supported. At the same time, Musk used the platform to silence or ban those that spoke out against him or Twitter.

So enough was enough. I’m done with Twitter (X). Good social media is a delicate balance of moderation with sufficient adoption to help normalize behaviors. It’s difficult to not roll my eyes at the idea of “good social media.” Still, BlueSky seems to be reaching critical mass. This surge is partly due to the US election outcomes and Elon Musk’s participation.

Bluesky and Other Alternatives

So you can find me (hopefully) lurking less on BlueSky than I did on Twitter and actively normalizing the conversation with banal posts about computers, sci-fi, and cat pics. Its still too soon to say whether Bluesky’s population and content model will work. But I’m hopeful.

Is this the Internet. Of course we post cat pics!

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— jduprey (@jduprey.bsky.social) November 15, 2024 at 1:44 AM

Prior to this, I’ve tried Mastodon and Threads. Mastodon’s way of decentralizing is complicated and creates islands with too small a population. Threads seems OK, except for its ties with Facebook and Instagram.