From the moment I heard about Elon Musk buying Twitter, I knew things were going to go downhill. My husband discovered me years ago with his scathing critiques of the tech billionaire’s behavior, and while I tend to try to see the best in people until absolutely proven wrong, Liam turns out to be a good judge of broad character. Most of the time.
When Musk first made clear his intentions to buy the platform, Twitter tweeted in April 2022 that he was “not leaving Twitter because I have a responsibility to share news with my audience here.” The years to come under Kasturi.”
So later that year he started wreaking havoc on the platform even after being acquired, which he eventually renamed X, and I tried my hardest to crash. I have invested heavily in that site over the last 15 years; It’s not easy for a Mississippi journalist to build a following of more than 50,000 people on any social media platform. Where else can I share our Mississippi Free Press stories with such a wide audience?
Plus, I’ve met a lot of interesting people over the years. Quitting doesn’t mean leaving a site and followers—it means leaving a community and friends. So, despite the swarms of redundant and misguided trolls, porn bots and crypto bros, I stuck around. “Your voice is needed out there,” I would tell myself, mirroring the sentiments shared by others.
I signed up and tried the alternatives that kept popping up. Mastodon had trouble choosing a server when signing up; Post News, a now-defunct social platform launched in November 2022 and closed in April 2024 due to slow growth; Meta’s wannabe-Twitter-replacement suppressing threads, news and posts about “politics” and about a third of the posts are accounts created by corporate committees; And Bluesky, at first felt like a private club because it only allowed a limited number of people to register using call codes when it first started.
For a long time, it seemed that nothing was going to change Twitter, which became more of a hellscape that seemed to be overrun by the trolls of 4chan, the neo-Nazis of Stormfront, and the dull AI bots of Chat GPT. is operated. Twitter X has turned into a place where racism, misogyny, homophobia, and especially transphobia run rampant under the guise of “free speech,” but using the word “cisgender” can get your account banned because Musk (whose most-described. living transsexual daughter is “dead”) says it. Considers defamation.
I really wanted Twitter to launch one of the alternatives, but one of the biggest hurdles was the lack of buy-in from mainstream journalists, publications, celebrities and other people who could attract an audience. A familiar pattern developed: people would leave X in hopes of joining another site, then return.
Then, all at once, things changed rapidly.
In October, Musk announced a big change to the Block feature: People you’ve blocked can still see your posts, allowing people you’ve blocked to continue to monitor your posts because of a threat to your security. This prompted people to leave X. At that point, I asked Mississippi Free Press Creative Director Christine Breneman if I could start posting on BlueSky, and our team, including our digital editor, Dustin Gordon, did.
But it was Donald Trump’s victory on November 5 that really started the exodus. During the campaign, not only did Musk openly support Trump’s campaign, but researchers said X adapted its methodology to turboost Trump and other MAGA-affiliated Republicans. As the owner of X is getting serious about Trump’s presidency (leading some to refer to him as co-president Musk), that means one of the world’s largest and most influential social media platforms is suddenly Government Owned- Billionaire combined with the ability to control what you see, whether anyone sees what you say and the ability to manipulate your emotions.
For millions, that was the final straw. In the weeks since the election, my BlueSky account has grown from around 2,000 in early November to 43,000 today. This is close to my total X of 50,000 built over 15 years. The Mississippi Free Press’s BlueSky account has already surpassed 22,000 followers (it took nearly five years), growing from less than 1,000 followers in October to more than 25,000 today. Even before our MFP’s BlueSky account surpassed our X account, our similar posts linking to similar messages on both platforms were getting more engagement on BlueSky. Funny what happens when an algorithm doesn’t artificially penalize links and messages.
But you know what I love most about Bluesky? It didn’t pigeon hole me. On other platforms, especially X, you choose a face of yours and you get a following, based on which the algorithm recommends you. At BlueSky, I’ll be a Mississippi journalist whose stories draw engagement from people who care about the news, but also a film photographer whose posts about my black-and-white film adventures spark conversations. It affirms that none of us are anything, no matter what some ugly mechanism thinks, and that communities can be built around shared interests beyond news and politics. Social media should be social media, not anti-social.
It’s clear that people are yearning for social media alternatives powered by algorithms designed to woo you with addictive videos and rage-inducing content tailored just for you. After trying to tough it out on X, I’m done.
No social media platform is perfect, and BlueSky certainly has a load of them. Hold its team accountable to ensure it remains a good place for users, media and the public as it continues to grow. But it’s already miles ahead of the X.
My experience as a journalist at BlueSky reminded me that my job is to provide good information to those who want it, not to argue with trolls and validate attention-seeking behavior at the worst people on the internet. My desire to reach a diverse audience should not be subject to constant abuse. I don’t owe it to Nazis with 1488 trolls in their usernames and profile pictures with cartoon frogs constantly throwing the word “fagg-t” at me and issuing veiled threats. I don’t have to please the endless incels who think “soy boy” is some kind of profound insult. I don’t have to accept being under the thumb of an algorithm that prioritizes crypto scams, AI bots and conspiracy theorists over my voice.
And you know what? Neither should you.
Some of the wiser among us have said that bluesky is an echo chamber. Well, now, it’s a place where I hear the echoes of artists, writers, filmmakers, scientists, and neighbors who care about their neighbors. It’s a lot better than being trapped in a room increasingly filled with echoes of Adolf Hitler.
So goodbye, Twitter. I’m going to the blue sky.
You can Follow Ashton on BlueSky hereThe Mississippi Free Press here And the entire MFP team The Mississippi Free Press Starter Pack is here.
related to
#Note #Long #Twitter #Moved #Blue #Skies