There were Swifties. Canaries in the Coal Mine Last week, as the results of the US presidential election rocked the internet, Taylor Swift fans took a stand. In large numbers, they left X and moved to Bluesky, where, as one Swifty told Wired, they could build a new community and “not support Elon. [Musk] No way.” They weren’t alone.
A lot has happened in the week since Donald Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris for the US presidency. For those who spend a lot of time online, one thing in particular stood out: Trump’s relationship with Musk, the owner of X who leveraged his platform to support the president-elect’s campaign. On Tuesday, Trump named Musk one of the heads of the new, not-yet-existent Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). That same day, Bluesky announced that it had gained 1 million new users in a week. On Thursday, the company said it had gained another million in 24 hours.
Not all of the new immigrants to Bluesky are Swift fans, mind you, but they do represent a specific subset of Internet culture: those unhappy with Musk’s connections to Trump and how they X were driving, finally gave up and decided to relocate. His social media life. Since its rollout in 2023, Bluesky has been a kind of “loose, slapdash” place, but in the past couple of months, as Slate pointed out this week, it’s become a place for sharing news and keeping up with live events. It became a better platform, a lifeboat. “For Left-leaning Twitter Refugees.”
While Americans used to swear they would move to Canada if their candidate didn’t win (as if such a move were easily achieved), they now camped out on a new platform. No need to break your lease or sell your home, just post “Come follow me on Bluesky” with your new handle. If you don’t like any of your new neighbors, that’s fine. Bluesky offers what most people call a “nuclear block,” which ensures users don’t hear or interact with anyone they don’t want to talk to. .
The Internet has always prided itself on being at least somewhat borderless. There are firewalls, language barriers, and other barriers, but the Web still helps information and stories get from one place to another much faster than anyone can travel there. No visa required.
Nevertheless, that pride has not always been a bit earned. There are gatekeepers, there are trolls, there are bullies. Musk wanted Twitter to be a town square, but you still needed an Internet-connected device to get there — and be prepared to avoid insults once you got there. Online, too, NIMBYs have something to say. Who calls themselves a “native” on any given platform is often a judge of what rules the crowd conforms to. You can go to Bluesky, the Canada of the Internet, but be careful what you bring.
