What is Bluesky and why are millions of people joining it?

The decentralized social media platform has seen a large uptick in users since the US election.

Millions of users have joined the social media platform Bluesky in the wake of the US presidential election.

Several academics, journalists, left-leaning politicians, and celebrities have said they would join the platform that used to be backed by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.

The platform said over the weekend that it was adding one million users in a day, with its total number of users now at 19 million.

What is Bluesky?

Bluesky is a decentralized social media platform that was founded as a research initiative as part of Twitter in 2019.

In 2021, Jay Graber became CEO of the platform, with Dorsey leaving the platform’s board in May. The site was initially invitation-only but opened to the public in February.

It contains both a Discover feed, which Bluesky said last year is “customized for what you like to see, while still giving you a view into what’s trending in the network”. It also has a chronological feed for accounts that users follow.

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· Bluesky has added a million users since the US presidential election