The Swifties were the canaries in the coal mine. Last week, as the fallout from the US presidential election ricocheted across the internet, Taylor Swift fans took a stand. In droves, they left X and went to Bluesky, where, as one Swiftie told WIRED, they could build a new community and not âsupport Elon [Musk] in any way.â They werenât alone.
A lot has happened in the week since Donald Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris for the US presidency. For those who spend a lot of time online, one thing in particular stood out: Trumpâs relationship with Musk, the X owner who leveraged his platform to support the president-electâs campaign. On Tuesday, Trump named Musk one of the heads of the new, not-yet-existent Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). That same day, Bluesky announced it had gained 1 million new users in a week. On Thursday, the company said it had gained another million in 24 hours.
Not all of those new migrants to Bluesky are Swift fans, mind you, but they do represent a certain subset of internet culture: the folks who, unhappy with Muskâs links to Trump and how he was running X, finally gave up and decided to relocate their social media lives. Since its rollout in 2023, Bluesky has been a kind of âloose, slaphappyâ place, but in the past two months, as Slate pointed out this week, its become a better platform for sharing news and keeping up with live events, a lifeboat for âleft-leaning Twitter refugees.â
Whereas Americans used to swear theyâd move to Canada if their candidate didnât win (as if such a move is easily achieved), now they just set up camp on a new platform. No need to break your lease or sell your house, just post âcome follow me on Blueskyâ with your new handle. If you donât like any of your new neighbors, thatâs cool. Bluesky offers something most folks call âthe nuclear block,â which lets users ensure they donât hear from someone they donât want to speak to or interact with.
The internet has always prided itself on being at least somewhat borderless. Firewalls, language barriers, and other hurdles exist, but the web still helps information and stories get from one place to another much more quickly than anyone could travel there. No visa required.
Yet, that pride has always been a bit unearned. There are gatekeepers, trolls, bullies. Musk wanted Twitter to be a town square, but you still needed a device connected to the internet to get thereâand had to be ready to dodge insults once you did. Even online, NIMBYs want a say. Who gets to call themselves a âlocalâ on any given platform often gets decided by which mob rules. You can go to Bluesky, the Canada of the internet, but be careful what baggage you bring.
