The Real Reason I Prefer Bluesky to X (and It’s Not Just About Elon)
Bluesky isn’t just a "left-wing echo chamber"—it’s a step towards sustainable, decentralised social media. While platforms like X face criticism for invasive policies and centralised control, Bluesky offers a future inspired by the open Web, driven by protocols like ATProto.
So, this post may end up turning into more of a rant, but I’d like to help clear up some generalisations and assumptions people have about those who use Bluesky instead of X, which aren’t necessarily true.
For those who aren’t aware, Bluesky has faced a lot of criticism over the past few days and weeks, with people claiming it’s a platform dominated by progressives. I even heard one person describe it as “the left-wing echo chamber of all echo chambers.”
While it’s fair to say there’s a noticeable presence of “the right” on X and “the left” on Bluesky, that’s not why I joined Bluesky. For the record, I’m not particularly left-leaning at all.
The reality is, I’m not heavily invested in either side of the political spectrum. However, there are some fundamental issues with X that need addressing — not least of which is the platform's "walled-garden" approach. Here are just a few reasons why I moved away from X:
- Musk taking over an account to promote President Trump's reelection campaign
- Changes allowing blocked people being able to see posts.
- X's new terms of service allowing your data to be used to train AI. (this is a big one)
For me, the appeal of Bluesky is not just to be liberated from these issues. In fact, it’s much simpler than that, and it’s not influenced by politics either.
The main reason I enjoy using Bluesky (and the wider Fediverse) isn’t about being around like-minded people. Instead, it’s about embracing and supporting sustainable technology for the future — in this case, decentralised social media and the AT Protocol.
The Web (the World Wide Web) as we know it today was originally designed to be decentralised. In other words, there is no single entity that owns the entire system. Instead, we all own a piece of it, and together it forms something greater.
We love the Web for this reason, so why shouldn’t social media platforms follow suit? Until recently, this wasn’t really possible. But thanks to the rise of protocols like ATProto and ActivityPub — and a desire from the online community to push for alternatives — this is now becoming a reality.
So, before anyone claims Bluesky is filled with “crazy leftists,” “SJWs,” and “communists,” that’s certainly not why I’m on the platform.
All this being said, I’d like to believe that the vast majority of newcomers to the platform feel the same way, but I know that’s not entirely the case. My hope is that, over time, they’ll see the benefits of decentralised social media as platforms like X start to lose their purpose.