Is the Sky the Limit for Bluesky, or Will X Still Mark The Spot?

Like other media, it seems social media may be heading toward a politically partisan future where your politics may determine which social media app you use.

Since Elon Musk purchased X and became an outspoken supporter of President-Elect Donald Trump, there has been an exodus of liberals from the website formerly known as Twitter.

Some have joined Mastodon, Instagram Threads, and the latest liberal social media lifeboat, Bluesky.

In the weeks following the election, Bluesky has seen its user base grow to 20 million users as many feel X has become too toxic and a right-leaning social media website.

This growing movement to sign up for new apps to find like-minded people isn't just happening on the left.

A few years ago, Parler was the place to be for conservatives. For a while, the app showed promise as its user base was growing, and even President-elect Trump started his own social media app: Truth Social.  

With cable news networks viewership declining and companies wanting to get off the cable TV titanic by selling or spinning off their portfolio of TV networks, partisan media lovers have to go somewhere to debate the latest political outrage of the day. So, it makes sense that these audiences would move to social media services with a base of like-minded individuals.

So far, the more partisan social media networks have not found much success like other partisan media including podcasts, YouTubers, and websites. There is a very easy to understand reason why Parler, Truth Social and others have not really put a dent in the audience size of more established social media: money.

There is a reason why Instagram Threads has almost 300 million users: it's backed by one of the world's largest, richest companies.

If you want to compete with Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and X, you have to spend lots of money. The amount of money it takes to compete with all the personnel, technology, and other expenses is massive. Just look at video streaming. Netflix dominates because not only is it the market leader, but it also has a big bank account that is hard for even traditional media players to compete with.

I don't believe any of the new social media apps, including BlueSky, set out to be partisan media, but the company cannot help it if one side of the political divide decides to move over to its service.

However, having just one viewpoint on your platform is risky because, as CNN and MSNBC have seen with ratings post-election, trying to appeal to just one side can hurt the bottom line when that side loses elections.

Also, is it best for us as a country to have everyone divided in a social media echo chamber where we all agree? As nasty and partisan as our politics are, we don't need to make it worse.

Chad Whittle, Ph.D. is an assistant professor of mass communication at Georgia College & State University. He holds his Ph.D. from the University of Southern Mississippi. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of Georgia College & State University, its administration, faculty, or the University System of Georgia.