Bluesky Experiences Outage Amidst Rapid User Growth

On Thursday, the social media platform Bluesky experienced an outage. This occurred during a period of increasing popularity for the application, frequently characterized as a more welcoming alternative to X. In recent days, Bluesky has occasionally ranked as the most downloaded application in both the US and UK Apple Stores. This surge coincides with numerous social media users migrating from X, previously known as Twitter, following the US election. However, on Thursday, certain users globally encountered difficulties loading their feeds and notifications. Emily Liu, a spokesperson for Bluesky, informed the BBC that one of the platform’s internet providers “had some downtime, apparently because a fibre cable was out. That means it happened outside of our company”. Bluesky released a status update from Cogent Communications, indicating that some clients utilizing a segment of its network situated between Raleigh and Durham, North Carolina, and Richmond, Virginia, had temporarily lost internet access. The company stated that not all users were affected by the service disruption, which seemed mostly resolved by late Thursday. In the week following Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election, 2.25 million users registered for Bluesky, a platform initiated by Jack Dorsey, a cofounder of Twitter. By Thursday evening, the platform reported that an extra one million individuals had registered within a 24-hour period. Jack Dorsey, the founder and former chief executive of Twitter, originally conceived Bluesky. A primary distinction between Bluesky and the majority of other social media platforms is its decentralized nature, signifying that it operates on independent servers rather than those owned by the company itself. The platform characterizes itself as “social media as it should be” – a venue where individuals can connect based on common interests “and have some fun again”. Users have the capability to post text, images, and video, respond publicly to other users, or engage in private one-on-one conversations via direct messages. However, these direct messages are not yet secured by end-to-end encryption, the most private and secure method. Mr. Dorsey previously stated his intention for Bluesky to function as a decentralized iteration or expansion of Twitter, free from ownership by any single individual or entity. Although he assisted in funding and launching it, he is no longer affiliated with the social network’s development team. Currently, chief executive Jay Graber manages and primarily owns the platform, which operates as a US public benefit corporation. Despite its expansion, its user base remains comparatively modest. On Thursday, the platform reached a total of 16 million users. Numerous new users have indicated that their choice to join Bluesky was influenced by Elon Musk, who strongly supported Trump’s election campaign and plans to stay engaged with the incoming administration. Threads, Meta’s rival to X, has also experienced continued growth. Cory Johnson, Chief Market Strategist at Epistrophy Capital Research, commented, “People are both disgusted and afraid of Elon Musk and what Twitter has become,” adding, “Users are fleeing X, and Bluesky and Threads are the beneficiaries.” This is not the initial instance where applications aiming to compete with X, offering a comparable text-post format, have seen a rapid influx of new registrations. Mastodon, a decentralized network, gained hundreds of thousands of users following its emergence after Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter. Both Bluesky and Threads experienced a surge in users in 2023 when Mr. Musk started introducing modifications to the platform. This week, the British news organization the Guardian declared its cessation of posting on X, stating that the US election highlighted its worries that Musk had been able to leverage X to “shape political discourse”. During Thursday’s service interruption, Bluesky personnel attempted to lighten the mood, with one developer quipping: “Btw — Today will get interesting! If the site goes down, maybe grab a soda, pet the kitty. We’ll hit it with a wrench as fast as we can.” Additional reporting contributed by Liv McMahon. Copyright 2024 BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC disclaims responsibility for the content of external websites. Information regarding its approach to external linking is available.