X users may move to blue skies after the big change.
Bluesky is an open, ad-free social network that emerged from Twitter, now X, in 2019. The platform announced on Thursday that half a million new users had signed up within X day announcing that it would change its blocking feature. “soon.” Users blocked from X will be able to see public posts but not like, reply or interact with them in any other way.
Although X said the change was to prevent people from blocking others from sharing sensitive information about people they blocked, X users pointed out that the move would support stalking, invalidate the Block function and violate the requirements of the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store.
Related: Jack Dorsey Explains Bluesky Exit: ‘Excessively Repeating All the Mistakes We’ve Made’ on Twitter
Bluesky said on Friday that more than 1.2 million people had registered to use the platform since Wednesday.
congratulations everyone, now we have passed 12 million people on bluesky!!! ?
over 1.2M new people joined bluesky in the last two days — welcome!! ???
[image or embed]— Bluesky (@bsky.app) October 18, 2024 at 1:42 PM
Soon we will introduce a change in the way the block function works.
If your post is set to public, the accounts you blocked will be able to view it, but they won’t be able to participate (like liking, replying, reposting, etc.).
— Engineering (@XEng) October 16, 2024
Bluesky also experienced a surge in users last month after X shut down operations in Brazil on August 30. Within a week of the ban, Bluesky added 3 million new users, 85% of whom were from Brazil. IX resumed operations on October 9, but not before Bluesky reached 10 million users in September.
The platform now has 12 million users, according to Friday’s announcement.
Meta’s Threads also seem to be experiencing an increase in users; it currently starts at the bottom of the top free apps for the iPhone list, and Bluesky comes in at number five. Threads surpassed 175 million users in July.
Related: Jack Dorsey Announces His Departure from Bluesky on X, Calls Elon Musk’s Platform ‘Freedom Technology’
