Bluesky grows as an alternative to X. Is Musk's support for Trump the reason?

The social media platform

Bluesky

gained over one million new users in the week following the

US presidential election

, according to company spokesperson

Emily Liu

. This surge came after Tesla CEO Elon Musk reiterated his support for President-elect Donald Trump on X, formerly Twitter, which resulted in many of its users expressing a desire for an alternative social media space.
“We’re seeing increased activity levels across all different forms of engagement,” Liu said, as quoted by the New York Times.
The majority of these new users on Bluesky are from the United States, Canada, and Britain, according to a New York Times report.
Founded in 2019 by former Twitter CEO

Jack Dorsey

, Bluesky transitioned from an invite-only platform to an open one in February. It currently boasts 15 million users.

Social media users have expressed their appreciation for Bluesky, saying it avoids US politics. "Bluesky is great, no US politics or spam - found the old tech Twitter again," wrote one X user. Another user described the app as a "breath of fresh air," noting it contains "no bots, no spam, and no fake news."

Trump has recently announced that X-owner

Musk

and American entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy will lead the "Department of Government Efficiency" (DOGE) in his administration. Musk has been a consistent supporter of

Trump

in the 2024 US presidential election and also appeared at his campaign rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City in October.

Numerous high-profile figures, including celebrities, politicians, and media personalities, have also recently joined or become more active on Bluesky. The platform has seen an influx of left-leaning users sharing a variety of content, from personal anecdotes to political commentary.
Despite this recent growth, Bluesky remains significantly smaller than

Threads

, Meta’s competitor to X, which reported 275 million monthly active users earlier this month.