For #GE24, it was a tale of two social media cities. On one hand, you had X/Twitter, the platform that once styled itself as the town square. On the other, you had Bluesky, the rival platform that has seen a surge in users in the wake of Donald Trump’s re-election in the US.
It was the first test of the platform and its popularity in Ireland. As more news organisations adopt it – perhaps lured by the lack of algorithm tinkering that has seen Threads engagement decline for media – the difference between interactions was notable.
On X/Twitter, there were accusations of election fixes and conspiracies, along with an unhealthy amount of abuse being levelled at various candidates. On Bluesky, there was less vitriol, with conversations around vote management strategies and who had a path to government.
Bluesky may be an echo chamber, or so the accusations claim, but it seems to be more civilised than the free-for-all shouting match that its predecessor has become. And who wouldn’t rather be somewhere more pleasant, rather than hanging on to X in some misguided attempt to defend it from those who were dragging it down?
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We have, however, been here before. Twitter may not have been perfect, but it was not always the troll-filled hellscape that it eventually descended into after Elon Musk bought it, claiming to be in favour of free speech for all. (Spoiler: there has not been free speech for all.) Likewise, Meta-owned Threads started out with a lot of promise before it too began to attract troll accounts and the algorithm went down an odd path.
So Bluesky is still in its infancy. We can, however, enjoy it while it lasts. And in the meantime, hope that the platform can survive the inevitable onslaught of users when more people catch on that we don’t have to stay and defend a mouldering patch of the internet that was never really ours anyway.
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