Bluesky is described as a decentralized microblogging social media platform. It was developed in 2019 as an initiative within Twitter with the original goal of finding or developing an open and decentralized standard for social media that would enable users to have more control over their data and user experience. The initiative was in research phase in early 2021 and became an actual independent company when it was registered as Bluesky Social in October 2021. The company further became a public benefit limited liability company in February 2022.
Furthermore, after the controversial acquisition of Twitter by tech billionaire Elon Musk in April 2022 that concluded in October 2022, all legal and financial ties with the company were severed. The company then launched the Bluesky platform in February 2023 as an invite-only beta for the iOS operating system. It was later released for Android in April of the same year. The platform had about 50 thousand users at that time. It saw rapid growth and reached over 1 million registered users in September 2023 and 2 million by November of the same year,
The platform has been open to the public since 6 February 2024. There have been several bursts of growth since then. This included the addition of 4 million users in August following the blocking of Twitter in Brazil. It had over 10 million users by September. Over 1.2 million users rush to the platform in October following the changes in the block feature and terms of service of Twitter. The most notable growth happened after the U.S. Presidential Election on 5 November 2024 when it saw millions of users from North America and the United Kingdom.
Decentralization: How BlueSky is Redefining Social Media
Authenticated Transfer Protocol: Definition and Principles
An independent research group within Twitter was working on a protocol and open standard for decentralized social networking services beginning in 2019. Actual research started in early 2021. 50 individuals from the decentralized technology community participated in assessing options and assembling proposals. This culminated with the launching of the custom-built Authenticated Data Experiment or ADX Protocol in August 2021.
Developers sought to address several key issues with traditional social media platforms. One of the most pressing ones is the centralized control over user data that gives platform owners immense power over platform policies. Another is data portability. Traditional social media often lock users and their data within their platforms. There is also concern about bias and manipulation due to the opaque algorithms of these platforms.
The ADX Protocol later evolved into the Authenticated Transfer or AT Protocol. It enables the development of a more user-centric and interoperable internet. There are two principles that define the AT Protocol. These are full user ownership and control over data and data integrity via secured and authenticated data transfer. Bluesky was created as a proof of concept. The AT Protocol powers and defines this specific social media platform.
Furthermore, because of the aforesaid working and technical principles behind the AT Protocol, the network architecture of the entire platform is considered federated. The platform is not dependent on a single central server. This means that multiple independent servers work together to form a single and interconnected social network. This specifically defines the decentralized characteristic of the social media platform.
Notable Features: Similarities and Difference From Twitter
The structure of Bluesky is generally comparable to Twitter. It feels and looks like Twitter. This is especially true before the Musk acquisition and its rebranding to X. Microblogging is still at the heart of its proposition. A user can send a short post containing 300-character text, images, and video. Other users can reply, repost, and quote this post. The user interface is also reminiscent of the general design philosophy used in Twitter.
However, unlike Twitter or X, the handle system is different. Default users are stuck with a rather lengthy handle appended with the “bsky.app” after their usernames. There is an option to use domain names via the AT Protocol. This allows accounts to self-verify their identity and legitimacy by proving ownership of a domain name through a domain name system or DNS text record or hypertext transfer protocol secure or HTTPS page.
Another difference with Twitter is the Custom Feeds feature in which users can choose or create algorithmic feeds. Bluesky developers call this a marketplace of algorithms. The platform also offers user-managed moderation and labeling services using the AT Protocol. A set of so-called anti-toxicity features was introduced in August 2024 that enables users to detach quoted posts from their original posts and hide replies to posts.
The platform also introduced a self-hosting feature in February 2024. Hence, when users choose to host their accounts on their own servers on AT Protocol, their data are stored and hosted on their servers rather than the database of Bluesky. This reinforces data interoperability and transferability. Users are technically free to move all of their social media data, including posts, likes, and followers to another social media platform.