Bluesky Gains One Million Users in Three Days Following X Ban in Brazil

The user base of Bluesky, a decentralised alternative to the social network X, surged by one million between August 30 and September 1. This growth was spurred by the ban of Elon Musk’s platform in Brazil.

wow… welcome to the ONE MILLION new users in the last three days!!! ?

join us: https://t.co/x6v5YW0WFT

— bluesky (@bluesky) August 31, 2024

“For anyone interested in how it’s going with the Brazil migration to Bluesky, we’re consistently at 15x our normal daily peak traffic. […] The team is holding it down and doing great,” the organisation’s representatives reported.

For anyone interested in how it’s going with the Brazil migration to Bluesky, we’re consistently at 15x our normal daily peak traffic

This graph is just kinda crazy, 4 days ago we couldn’t imagine the amount of load we’re seeing on our systems right now

The team is holding it down and doing great

[image or embed]

— Jaz (@jaz.bsky.social) Aug 31, 2024 at 19:36

On August 30, Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes approved the suspension of X’s operations in the country after the social network refused to name its legal representative.

The company also excluded the ban of certain accounts as part of broader measures to combat misinformation related to former President Jair Bolsonaro.

In response, Elon Musk called Moraes “the embodiment of evil” and a “dictator” for unlawful political censorship.

Alexandre de Moraes is an evil dictator cosplaying as a judge. https://t.co/ZIV8KbDCmk

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 30, 2024

On September 2, the Supreme Court panel upheld Moraes’ August 30 ruling to suspend X’s operations.

Bluesky was conceived as an open-source protocol that social media platforms could build upon to mitigate censorship risks.

Back in May, the project’s founder Jack Dorsey resigned from the organisation’s board of directors. 

According to him, Bluesky was repeating the mistakes of X and could not be considered truly decentralised. The company began insisting on the creation of moderation tools, he explained.