There is no longer any doubt that Threads and Bluesky have created the most viable alternatives to the platform once known as twitter. But while the two services may share some of the same goals, they have shown very different visions for how text-based social networks should operate.
Threads, of course, is controlled by Meta, which is controlled by Mark Zuckerberg. And while the company has claimed to embrace “public conversation,” it has also put its thumb on the scale to encourage certain types of speech over others. The company limited “political” content in an election year, forcing users to change their settings to allow posts about elections or “social issues” to appear in their feed “for you.”
This desire to limit what Meta described as “potentially sensitive” content has also led to some questionable moderation decisions. For months, the application has been searching for some topics, including those related to COVID-19 and vaccines. Those limits have since been removed, but there have been numerous, unexplained cases of other moderation failures on Threads.
In October, instagram chief Adam Mosseri admitted that the company had “found bugs and made changes” after users reported their accounts had been penalized for using “saltines” and “cracker.” Earlier this month, Meta communications director Andy Stone after users noticed that searches for posts about Austin Tice, the American journalist who disappeared in Syria in 2012, were blocked on the app because the content “may be associated with drug sales.” Stone did not offer an explanation, but said the problem had now been resolved.
Bluesky, on the other hand, has taken a less top-down moderation approach. While the company employs some of its own moderators to enforce “basic moderation,” users have a lot of control over how much questionable or harmful content they want to see. Blueksy also allows people to create their own for an even more personalized experience.
“Moderation is, in many ways, like governance,” Bluesky CEO Jay Graber told me earlier this year. “And in setting the norms of a social space, we don't believe that one person or one company should decide that unilaterally for an entire ecosystem where people have public conversations important to the state of the world.”
That philosophy manifests itself in other important ways. twitter was never a <a target="_blank" data-i13n="elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:5;pos:1" class="link " href="https://www.niemanlab.org/2023/01/twitter-drops-from-tiny-to-tinier-as-a-referral-source-for-news-publishers/” rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank” data-ylk=”slk:major source;elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:5;pos:1;itc:0;sec:content-canvas”> of traffic for most publishers, even before the Elon Musk acquisition. But the platform once played <a target="_blank" data-i13n="elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:6;pos:1" class="link " href="https://www.cjr.org/business_of_news/how-twitter-turning-to-x-changed-journalism.php” rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank” data-ylk=”slk:a vital role;elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:6;pos:1;itc:0;sec:content-canvas”> in the information ecosystem. At a time when Elon Musk has recognized that <a target="_blank" data-i13n="elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:7;pos:1" class="link " href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-twitter–x-links-lazy-linking-2024-11″ rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank” data-ylk=”slk:penalizes posts with links;elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:7;pos:1;itc:0;sec:content-canvas”> and Threads' top executive has said that Meta doesn't want to “encourage” Bluesky leaders have to encourage link sharing, and several publishers have reported seeing <a target="_blank" data-i13n="elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:10;pos:1" class="link " href="https://www.emarketer.com/content/bluesky-surpasses-threads-x-referral-traffic-source” rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank” data-ylk=”slk:significantly more traffic;elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:10;pos:1;itc:0;sec:content-canvas”> from Bluesky, compared to Threads and x.
But perhaps the most obvious difference between Meta and Bluesky's approach is the order in which posts appear. By default, Bluesky uses a reverse chronological feed that shows posts from accounts you follow. Users can also choose to add based on hundreds of different themes. For example, I follow a “cat photos” feed that shows posts with photos of cats and a “hot news” feed that shows links to news stories that are widely shared on the platform.
And although Meta has recently launched its own version of , the app still defaults to an algorithmic “for you” feed that displays a mix of content that users actually want and unsolicited nonsense that's so random and strange that it's been compared to a . (Meta said it would allow users to make their follow feed the default, but has not provided an update.) It's also telling that even content creators are paid hundreds or thousands of dollars to post on Threads, the platform.
Even more significant changes are coming in 2025. While Threads and Bluesky have so far been completely ad-free, both services will eventually need to generate revenue.
So far, Bluesky has experimented with other ways to make money, including selling custom domains and an upcoming project that will offer additional features to paying users. Although Graber has not done it completely publicity, has also been clear that it does not want ““Service for the sake of publicity.
Threads, on the other hand, is already connected to Meta's multibillion-dollar advertising machine, an entity so intrusive that many people believe the company's apps <a target="_blank" data-i13n="elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:19;pos:1" class="link " href="https://privacycenter.instagram.com/dialog/is-facebook-listening-to-my-conversation/” rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank” data-ylk=”slk:literally listen;elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:19;pos:1;itc:0;sec:content-canvas”> to their conversations (a theory that has been repeatedly <a target="_blank" data-i13n="elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:20;pos:1" class="link " href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2018/12/28/18158968/facebook-microphone-tapping-recording-instagram-ads” rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank” data-ylk=”slk:debunked;elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:20;pos:1;itc:0;sec:content-canvas”>.) Although Zuckerberg has The company is in no rush to turn Threads into a “very large business” — it could see it as early as January, according to reports — and there's little reason to believe Meta won't eventually employ the same playbook it has with all of its other services.
All of this makes Bluesky even more helpless. Threads is already over 10 times its size and Meta has made it clear that it has no problem using its copy or kill function. <a target="_blank" data-i13n="elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:23;pos:1" class="link " href="https://techcrunch.com/2020/07/29/in-antitrust-hearing-zuckerberg-admits-facebook-has-copied-its-competition/” data-ylk=”slk:tactics;elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:23;pos:1;itc:0;sec:content-canvas”>
But that's also exactly why so many Bluesky users fervently believe that the platform is the one that “.” While Threads and x put public conversations in the hands of autocratic billionaires, Bluesky is an independent entity and has structured its platform much more democratically. The platform has had its share of but it puts much more control in the hands of its users. Developers are welcome, and they have created dozens of third-party apps for the service.
All of that may ultimately not be enough to fend off Meta, which can afford to spend billions of dollars on Threads. But Bluesky's vision of a decentralized open source platform is about much more than becoming the next big social media site. “We set out to change the way social media works from the bottom up,” Graber said during a recent press event. “I want us to have choices about what we watch.”
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