The Brazilian court's decision to ban X (formerly Twitter) appears to be a win-win for its competitors, particularly Bluesky.
The microblogging platform reported late Friday that it had its “highest activity ever,” adding 500,000 new users in the past two days. It also topped Brazil’s free iPhone app chart today, just ahead of second-place Meta’s Threads.
Noting the rankings, Bluesky CEO Jay Graber wrote, “Well done, Brazil. You made the right choice.”
That growth is particularly impressive for a platform that only fully revealed itself to the public in February, and which has acknowledgment of its small size (especially compared to rivals X and Threads) by describing itself as the “short-lived king of social apps.” The company says it has more than 6 million users as of May 2024.
Bluesky was first announced in 2019 as a Twitter-backed initiative to build a public, decentralized social protocol. It has since become an independent public benefit company, and Twitter founder Jack Dorsey left the board earlier this year.
Meanwhile, Elon Musk's X is embroiled in a legal battle with Brazilian Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Morais over the company's refusal to block certain accounts as part of a broader effort to crack down on election-related disinformation.
X said earlier this month that it would cease operations in Brazil, and Moraes warned the company that it would be banned if it did not appoint a legal representative in the country. He did so on Friday, threatening to fine users who tried to bypass the ban using VPNs.
As the ban loomed, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva appeared to bid farewell to his X followers by linking to his other social media accounts (starting with Bluesky).
