Bluesky experiences outage as users flock to the platform

On Thursday, the social media platform Bluesky experienced a disruption, coinciding with its growing popularity. The app is frequently referred to as a more welcoming alternative to X.

Recently, Bluesky has become one of the top downloaded apps on the Apple Stores in both the US and UK. Many social media users have been switching from X, previously known as Twitter, following the US election.

However, on Thursday, numerous users across the globe experienced difficulties with loading their feeds and notifications.

Emily Liu, a spokesperson for Bluesky, informed the BBC that one of their internet service providers experienced some outages, which seemed to be due to a damaged fiber optic cable. She clarified that this issue occurred outside of their company's control.

Bluesky shared an update from Cogent Communications, which reported that some customers using a section of its network situated between Raleigh and Durham in North Carolina and Richmond in Virginia experienced a temporary loss of connection.

According to the company, not everyone was affected by the outage, and it seemed to be mostly fixed by late Thursday.

Since Donald Trump secured the presidency in the US last week, 2.25 million people have registered for Bluesky, a platform created by Jack Dorsey, a co-founder of Twitter.

The main distinction between Bluesky and many other social media sites is its decentralized nature. This means it runs on separate servers instead of being controlled by a single company. Although its user community is increasing, it is still quite modest in size.

Numerous newcomers have mentioned that their choice to sign up for Bluesky was influenced by Elon Musk, who strongly supported Trump's election efforts and plans to stay engaged with the upcoming administration. Meanwhile, Threads, Meta's rival to X, has been steadily growing as well.

Cory Johnson, Chief Market Strategist at Epistrophy Capital Research, stated, “Many people feel a mix of disgust and fear regarding Elon Musk and the transformation of Twitter. As a result, users are leaving X, which is benefiting platforms like Bluesky and Threads.”

This week, the British news organization the Guardian revealed that it will stop sharing posts on X. They stated that the recent US election highlighted their worries about Musk's influence in using X to "influence political discussions."

During the outage on Thursday, Bluesky team members attempted to lighten the mood. One developer quipped, “By the way, things might get a bit wild today! If the site goes offline, why not grab a soda and give your cat some love? We'll try to fix it as quickly as possible.”