Bluesky faces growth challenges: what should we learn from Twitter/X?

Bluesky, a rapidly gaining popularity as a social network, is experiencing challenges familiar to many of its predecessors, including Twitter. Audience growth is followed by issues of content moderation, user trust and regulatory compliance. Here’s what Bluesky can do to strengthen its position.

Explosive growth and its consequences

Bluesky passed the 20 million user mark last week, and that number continues to grow. More than 25% of the new audience came after the US election, catalyzing a massive user migration from the X/Twitter platform. Notably, the number of active participants on the platform is high, with daily growth of 4 to 8 users per second. The platform could reach 23 million users by the time Thanksgiving rolls around in the US.

The platform has been on the rise since the election.

But behind this success lie major challenges. The main problems are related to content moderation, including the spread of misinformation and the rise of law-breaking content such as CSAM. From two per day at the start of 2023, the rate has risen to eight since the election.

At the beginning of the year 2023, the number of incidents has risen to two per day.

What can Bluesky learn from Twitter?”

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Twitter, which also experienced rapid growth in its early years, has long been unprepared for the challenges of moderation. From its launch in 2006 until 2014, the platform had virtually no mechanisms for dealing with trolling and insults. The malfunctions, chaotic growth and slow response to user queries led to significant audience losses.

So far, the platform has not been able to keep up.

Bluesky, being at the same stage of development, can learn from Twitter’s mistakes. Already, users are being confronted with fake accounts that undermine trust. An account verification system could be implemented to address this problem. Twitter launched its famous «blue ticks» in 2009 – it was an effective way to identify public personas and increase transparency.

Twitter’s account verification system is a great way to identify public figures and increase transparency.

EU compliance issues

European regulators have noticed that Bluesky is technically in violation of EU laws because the company has no representation in Europe. However, unlike Twitter under Ilon Musk, Bluesky has not yet come into open conflict with EU authorities. The problem is likely due to the platform’s rapid growth, which doesn’t give the company time to adapt to legal requirements.

What’s next?

For Bluesky’s continued success, several key challenges need to be addressed:

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1. Implementation of account verification: This measure will increase user trust and reduce the number of fake accounts.
2. Strengthening content moderation: Developing stricter tools to combat objectionable content, including automated algorithms and expanding the moderation team.
3. Compliance with international regulations: Rapidly establishing a presence in Europe will help avoid conflicts with regulators.

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Bluesky has the potential to become a serious competitor to Twitter/X, but to do so it needs to respond quickly to challenges and avoid the mistakes of its predecessors.