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As we previously indicated, a significant transformation was on the horizon. X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter and owned by Elon Musk, has officially announced a major alteration: blocking users will no longer prevent them from viewing your content. This change has prompted many users to reconsider their presence on X.
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Under the new guidelines, blocking someone on X means that while they cannot interact with your posts, they can still view them—an approach that diverges from previous functionality. The response to this modification has been predominantly negative; even some of Musk’s supporters have raised concerns regarding user safety associated with this shift.
Musk’s overhaul of X’s blocking feature raises serious safety issues.
User Exodus to Bluesky Following Changes
The alteration in the blocking feature seems to have catalyzed an exodus towards alternative platforms. Bluesky reported an impressive influx of 500,000 new users within just 24 hours following X’s announcement about these changes.
Bluesky Surges Amidst User Discontent with X
Bluesky stands out as one of the few successful alternatives since Musk took over Twitter. It ranks as the third-largest microblogging platform after Meta’s Threads and X itself. Unlike its competitors, however, Bluesky operates as a public benefit corporation and promotes itself as a decentralized social media option (though Threads also incorporates some decentralization features).
“Welcome to over 100k newcomers who joined Bluesky within just 12 hours!” announced their official account shortly after midnight on October 17.
A follow-up update was shared close to the end of that first day:
“Update alert! We’ve welcomed half a million new members today,” posted by their official account.
Both Bluesky and Threads typically experience spikes in user registrations whenever decisions made by Musk seem likely to alienate existing users from X. Despite having fewer resources compared to Instagram-linked Threads, Bluesky consistently attracts hundreds of thousands of fresh sign-ups each time discontent arises among former Twitter users.
A notable instance occurred when Brazil prohibited X from operating due to non-compliance with local regulations last month; during that week alone, Bluesky gained an astounding three million new accounts.
Following this surge in numbers, it was reported that Bluesky had reached ten million active users. With this latest development stemming from changes at X pushing its user base past eleven million now seems inevitable. Observers are keenly awaiting how X will respond next amid these shifting dynamics.
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