Fledgling social media upstart Bluesky has enjoyed a surge in new users over the past week, more than doubling its user base to over 15 million as leftists flee from X/Twitter. However, the rapid growth has also brought significant moderation challenges for the young company. The overwhelmingly leftist userbase has been flooded the company with flagged posts, requests for censorship, and even child pornography.
The New York Times reports that in the midst of significant changes in the social media landscape, Bluesky, a relatively new social network, has experienced an unprecedented surge in growth. Founded by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Bluesky was initially introduced as an invitation-only prototype with the intention of closely managing its growth. However, the past week has seen the platform’s user base more than double, surpassing 15 million users as people seek alternatives to established networks such as X, Facebook, and Threads.
The rapid growth of Bluesky has propelled the app to the top of both Apple’s and Google’s app stores, where it currently holds the position of the most downloaded free app. This sudden influx of users has forced the company, which consists of only 20 full-time employees, to adapt and scale up its operations practically overnight.
Jay Graber, the 33-year-old chief executive of Bluesky, acknowledged the challenges that come with such rapid growth. “We as a team take pride in our ability to scale quickly,” she said in an interview. “But there’s always some growing pains.” Graber revealed that the app, which is still significantly smaller than its competitors, is adding more than one million new users per day.
After days of explosive growth on the platform, the Bluesky Safety team posted Friday that it received 42,000 moderation reports in the preceding 24 hours, compared to 360,000 in all of 2023. Most troublingly, the company acknowledged that it is receiving reports of “CSAM” or child sexual abuse material, commonly known as child pornography. […]
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