The expression “One man’s loss is another man’s gain” turned true in the case of Bluesky, which gained 500,000 new users in just two days after a Brazilian Supreme Court ordered X (formerly Twitter) to suspend its services in Brazil.
Bluesky is an open, decentralized microblogging social platform created by Jack Dorsey, the former CEO of Twitter. I
t is built on the AT Protocol (also developed by Bluesky). Touted as a popular alternative to Twitter, the platform aims to give users more control over their online experience.
“Brazil, you’re setting new all-time-highs for activity on Bluesky!” announced the app’s creators on the official Bluesky account.
Paul Frazee, developer of Bluesky, also acknowledged the exceptional increase in traffic following X’s ban. X has more than 20 million users in Brazil.
“There will almost certainly be some outages and performance issues,” he warned, adding, “We’ve never seen traffic like this. Hang with us!”
Following X’s ban, Bluesky became the number one free iPhone app in Brazil, surpassing Meta’s Threads at number two. Bluesky CEO Jay Graber also acknowledged this, writing, “good job, Brazil, you made the right choice.”
For those unaware, Elon Musk’s X has been engaged in an escalating legal fight with the Brazilian government.
Earlier this year, Brazil’s Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes passed an order in April that required the platform to block certain accounts allegedly involved in spreading misinformation and hate messages.
In response, X warned that it would shut down its operations in Brazil.
As a result, the Brazilian government warned that the platform’s operations across the country would be completely suspended unless it appointed a legal representative within Brazil, a legal requirement for large foreign companies operating in the country.
On Friday, Justice Moraes ordered an “immediate, complete, and total suspension of X’s operations” in the country, as X failed to name a legal representative in Brazil.
Further, the ban on X also applies to regular citizens and businesses in the country. Additionally, anyone who tries to use X by circumventing the ban by using a VPN will be fined 50,000 Brazilian Real (roughly 8,900 USD) daily.
Following the ban on X, Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva encouraged his X followers to join him on other social media platforms, including Bluesky.
