From X to Bluesky: why are people fleeing Elon Musk’s ‘digital town square’?

As mentioned in other reference articles published in recent weeks, the exodus of X users has not gone unnoticed. For months, if not years now, US entrepreneur Elon Musk's platform had been losing prestige: the quality of content and the app's satisfaction index had been declining since the name change in summer 2023.

The last months of 2024, therefore, were characterised by a mass exodus, in which millions of X users removed themselves from the platform and then activated a new account on Bluesky, a social media platform in clear competition with Musk's progeny. Many wondered what could have caused such an exodus, and the answer became quite clear within a short time.

@america, an account controlled by Musk himself, began publishing pro-President Donald Trump posts, using the profile to promote his own Super PAC (political action committee) in his favour. Faced with this incessant propaganda, many users became uncomfortable and preferred to distance themselves.