The reelection of Donald Trump as president last week brought a wave of jubilation to X (formerly Twitter). The influencers and megadonors who supported the Republican nominee delighted in the defeat of his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, while giddily speculating about the extremist agenda he would pursue once in office. The site’s owner, billionaire Trump ally Elon Musk, who had drastically overhauled the platform to amplify far-right misinformation and hate speech, was particularly pleased. He announced in a post on Monday that the Super PAC through which he committed at least $119 million of his personal wealth to electing Trump would keep working to register more Republican voters in “key districts around the country.”
For many who had hoped to see Trump lose, and were already on the fence about leaving X, this victory lap provided as good an occasion as any to finally log off. Many users noted a steady loss of hundreds or even thousands of followers as accounts were deactivated, continuing a downward trend in activity since Musk’s takeover of the social network in late 2022. Meanwhile, its direct competitors — Bluesky and Threads — once again saw an influx of new users apparently fleeing the toxic conversation on X.
Bluesky, a decentralized service developed as a project under former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and then incorporated as a separate company, announced on Tuesday that in the week since the election it had added 1 million users, bringing it close to 15 million registered users altogether. It opened to the public in February after previously being invite-only. With a more left-leaning sensibility and a focus on transparency and user safety, it is favored by those increasingly alienated by the politics of Musk and X, or vulnerable to harassment there. (Marginalized groups including transgender and disabled people are well represented on the platform.)
Threads, a Twitter-like app by Meta that is linked to a user’s Instagram account, has not disclosed a spike in sign-ups in recent days, and Meta did not respond to a request for comment on the matter. But on Monday, the network’s official account posted an update welcoming newcomers and sharing tips for how to optimize the service. With Meta’s established user base, it expanded quickly after launching in July 2023, and the weekend before the election, the company said Threads had reached 275 million monthly active users. CEO Mark Zuckerberg also revealed that a million people sign up for the service every day.
In contrast to Bluesky, which shows users posts from people they follow in chronological order and offers specialized feeds including a “Discover” section, Threads is more aggressively algorithmic, showing posts non-chronologically and inserting recommended content into your main feed. (X’s “For You” feed is similar, though on that site users can opt to scroll a feed of content only from accounts you’re following.) It hosts more mainstream brands, news outlets, celebrities, and pundits, but it also doesn’t recommend political content unless a user explicitly asks for it. Perhaps unsurprisingly, then, it feels more like Facebook than Bluesky, where an anarchic “shitposting” culture tends to dominate, and famous faces are not always welcome.
“Bluesky Social” became a trending topic on Threads on Tuesday as users reacted to the news of its rapid growth. Preferences between the two platforms differ, such that both have lately seen an uptick in discussion about the pros and cons of each. This in itself was another indication that people who once relied on X to stay informed and connected are thinking about their best alternatives in the fragmenting landscape of social media.
Meanwhile, X’s future as it continues to lose liberal and moderate voices, leaving MAGA diehards to revel in a second Trump term, is murky at best. In becoming a political bullhorn for the right, it now more closely resembles Truth Social, the app Trump rolled out in 2022 after he was permanently suspended from Twitter. (Musk later reinstated his account.) With its distinct focus on Trump himself, Truth Social has struggled to attract a user base, though in an interview the morning following the election, tech journalist Kara Swisher speculated that X and Truth Social — both failing businesses but useful when it comes to propagandizing — could merge into one company, with Musk and Trump profiting off it as a so-called “meme stock,” one whose price is driven up through viral hype among retail investors.
Whatever happens, it’s clear that a massive realignment of the virtual public square is underway as many think about what to prioritize in their online lives. Some want meaningful connections. Others only want to hear opinions they agree with. And a few might just get off their phones altogether.