Bluesky adds millions of new users after Brazil bans Elon Musk’s X

Bluesky has said it now has more than 10 million users after Brazilians flocked to the app as an alternative to the banned X.

The US-based decentralized platform said it added 8 million new users in the past 10 months, most of them in recent weeks after Brazil suspended X.

X missed a court-imposed deadline to name a legal representative in Brazil after a months-long feud between Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes and Elon Musk, the social network’s billionaire owner.

The use of VPN networks has soared following the suspension, as some Brazilians sought to circumvent the ban despite the risk of being fined up to 50,000 reais or roughly $9000 for doing so.

Most, however, moved on and switched to other social media networks, including Meta’s Threads and Bluesky, which appears to have emerged as the biggest winner from the situation.

“We are now a Brazilian app,” Bluesky said in a post on August 31st, a day after X was suspended. It said it added 2.6 million users in a week following the ban, over 85% of which were from Brazil.

The platform announced in a post on Sunday (September 15th) evening that it now has 10 million users—and there’s still room for growth. It’s estimated that over 22 million Brazilians used X, or roughly a tenth of the country’s entire population.

If you're reading this, you're one of the first 10 million users on Bluesky! Se você está lendo isso, você é um dos primeiros 10 milhões de usuários do Bluesky!

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undefined Bluesky (@bsky.app) September 15, 2024 at 8:25 PM

X reportedly has 250 million daily users globally, while Threads most recently said it had 175 million active monthly users. Bluesky was invitations-only until earlier this year when it finally opened to everyone.

According to Similarweb, most traffic to Bluesky still came from the US in the 28 days leading to September 13th, accounting for 58%. Brazil was second with almost 17% – a jump from 3.63% if only the month of August is taken into account.

Bluesky was founded in 2021 by Jack Dorsey, the co-founder and former chief executive of Twitter, which Musk rebranded to X following his takeover of the platform in 2022.

Disinformation row

X was banned after it failed to comply with Justice Moraes’ request to block accounts accused of spreading disinformation while they are under investigation. Many of these accounts belonged to the supporters of Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s former right-wing president.

The platform refused to comply, describing the order as “censorship. " It closed its office in Brazil and said that its representative was threatened with arrest.

In response to the subsequent banning of X, Musk said that “an unelected pseudo-judge” was “destroying” free speech in Brazil for political purposes. Critics of the ban in Brazil also accused Justice Moraes of being left-wing.

Refusing to back down, Moraes said: "Those who violate democracy, who violate fundamental human rights, whether in person or through social media, must be held accountable.”

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva defended the judge’s decision, insisting that all businesses operating in the country must comply with legal obligations. He said Musk cannot disrespect the law “just because a guy has a lot of money.”

Musk has previously clashed with the EU, where X faces fines of up to 6% of its revenue if it does not comply with the bloc’s Digital Services Act. Regulators said the platform violated the law by deceiving users into engaging with potentially harmful content.

The tech billionaire also engaged in a war of words with UK’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who said Musk was inciting anti-immigration riots that shook the country in the summer.