AUSTIN, Texas – Starting in 2019 as a project within Twitter (now X), the social media app Bluesky has grown into a platform with over 30 million users, according to CEO Jay Graber. She spoke on the platform’s success, the future of social media and more at a South by Southwest panel on March 10. 

What You Need To Know

  • Graber described Bluesky as a gateway to the open web, allowing users to formulate the content that shows up on their feed

  • When asked by Masnick regarding security of the open platform, Graber responded that anyone who wants to comprise the program could technically do so

  • Bluesky’s interface looks similar to Twitter’s, allowing users to write short blogs, post photos and videos and follow creators

  • The app has grown from having around 3 million users in 2024 to now over 10 times that size

The featured session was led by Mike Masnick, founder and editor of TechDirt, a technology blog. 

Graber described Bluesky as a gateway to the open web, allowing users to formulate the content that shows up on their feed. She compared the app experience to a “choose your own adventure.” 

This is because of the app’s open-source AT Protocol. 

“Building open networks is critical so people can modify them and make them their own,” Graber said. 

When asked by Masnick regarding security of the open platform, Graber responded that anyone who wants to comprise the program could technically do so.

“If a billionaire came in and bought Bluesky or took it over, or, if I decided tomorrow to change things in a way that people really didn’t like, then they could fork off and go on to another application,” Graber said.

This came from the discussion around billionaire Elon Musk buying Twitter and renaming it X in 2022. Musk also moved its headquarters to Texas and changed its policies around hate speech and misinformation. Since then, X has decreased in users.

Bluesky’s interface looks similar to Twitter’s, allowing users to write short blogs, post photos and videos and follow creators. It has grown from having around 3 million users in 2024 to now over 10 times that size. 

"While social media has done a ton of great things yes, we can agree on that it has also contributed significantly to so many of our problems: extreme division, misinformation, isolation, loneliness and suicide. Into this toxic and unhealthy mix, insert Bluesky,” said SXSW President Hugh Forest, according to the Austin American-Statesman. "Bluesky feels like a breath of fresh air. Bluesky feels like what we have loved about all the possibilities of social media in 2007 can continue to grow and maintain."