Your Feed Shouldn't Have a Landlord

Image Credit: Techcrunch

I keep posting on Threads that I’m over on Bluesky. Sometimes people keep asking why, or snarkily point out how Bluesky an feel like a ghostown 🙄. So here’s the short version of why I think a platform like Bluesky is where we should plant our social media flag.

Every big platform we use right now belongs to somebody. One corporation, or usually one guy at the top. When they change their mind, your "social home" changes with it. Your reach, your account, your community, all of it lives at their pleasure.

And lately we're witnessing what that looks like when they exert that power. TikTok permanently banned the account for Musk, a documentary critical of Elon Musk, right as it opened in theaters. And Meta, the owner of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads as well, pulled the No Kings Instagram account in the middle of nationwide protests this past weekend.

Sure, both accounts came back. But for those hours, a corporation decided who got heard during a protest and a film launch. That switch should not be theirs to flip.

Bluesky works differently. It’s a decentralized network, which is a fancy way of saying no single person owns it, and no single person ever can. Don’t like how one app runs things? Someone can build another one, and you can bring your content, your feed, and your community with you. Nobody gets to hold your followers hostage.

That’s the whole point. Not the tech. ✨The freedom.✨

And I do get it, moving platform is a pain. Your friends are where they are. In the early days of Threads, it was easy to see when it took hold so fast when people were seeing all the content they liked after first login in. But a lot of people are already packing their bags right now, and they’re looking for somewhere that won’t pull the rug out from under them at any given moment or during critical moments in our current history.

So stop renting. Come build your social home on 🦋 Bluesky.