'It's not true that Bluesky is a left-leaning app in the US,' Bluesky's COO denies

Bluesky, a similar service to X (formerly Twitter), which is owned by Republican supporter Elon Musk, is often called a 'left-leaning social networking site' because many people who have left X have joined it. Rose Wang, Bluesky's chief operating officer, denied this view, saying it was 'incorrect.'

I interviewed Bluesky COO @rose.bsky.team on Bloomberg TV today alongside Caroline Hyde! Two highlights:* Subscriptions are coming by end of the year * Wang rejected the idea that Bluesky is 'left-leaning' simply because lots of people are leaving X to joinwww.youtube.com/watch?v=8za3...

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— Kurt Wagner ( @kurtwagner.bsky.social ) December 4, 2024 7:54

Bluesky COO Rejects Idea Upstart Social App Is 'Left-Leaning' - Bloomberg
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-12-03/bluesky-coo-rejects-idea-upstart-social-app-is-left-leaning

Rose Wang, Bluesky COO: 'People are tired of the algorithm deciding everything' | Technology | EL PAÍS English
https://english.elpais.com/technology/2024-11-26/rose-wang-bluesky-coo-people-are-tired-of-the-algorithm-deciding-everything.html

Some left-leaning media and journalists have announced their departure from X due to Musk's political claims and the bias of the information spread on X. For example, major news media The Guardian has stopped posting articles to X for reasons such as 'X spreads disturbing content, including far-right conspiracy theories and racism,' and 'Mr. Musk used his influence on X to spread political discourse in the 2024 US presidential election.'

Why did the British newspaper The Guardian stop posting articles on X (formerly Twitter)? - GIGAZINE

Some of these people have announced that they are switching to a similar service called Bluesky, which some consider to be a 'politically left-leaning' or 'anti-mask' platform.

'It's not true that Bluesky is an American-centric, left-leaning app. And we're not building an app for one voice or one political viewpoint,' Wang said in an interview with Bloomberg TV, making it clear that the developers are not running the platform with any political agenda.

'Our policy is to make social media more open and more healthy,' Wang said. 'Bluesky has a global user base, and its view as an alternative political social network to X will change over time as more people join.'

Bluesky's user base has exploded, with official statistics saying it has 24 million users, though it's still far behind X, which is said to have nearly 600 million. When asked about the reason for its explosive growth, Wang said, 'Many social media platforms focus on content from brands and celebrities, and forget about ordinary people. We don't do that. Bluesky is made by ordinary people, for ordinary people. Here, users interact with real people, have fun conversations, and make friends again.' He spoke of the appeal of Bluesky, suggesting that its adherence to the basics as a social networking site is what attracts people.

Bluesky app users to increase by 300% by November 2024, reaching 3.5 million daily active users - GIGAZINE

By the way, in the official Bluesky app, posts are displayed or hidden according to the labeling by Bluesky's moderation team, but if you use a third-party app or get posts directly using the official API, you can ignore the official moderation and view all posts. Therefore, even if Bluesky's moderation team arbitrarily labels posts, users can ignore the moderation and view the posts. In addition, there is a mechanism for users to moderate content according to their own criteria and a function called a custom feed that collects posts according to their own criteria, so technically it is possible to use it in such ways as 'not displaying right-wing content as much as possible' or 'creating a feed that collects only right-wing discourse and collecting information.'

GIGAZINE also interviewed someone at Bluesky in April 2024 to hear about future feature expansions and Bluesky's ambitions.

I asked the people at Bluesky everything I want to know right now, including 'Bluesky's ambitions,' 'Bluesky's monetization plan,' 'Bluesky's official server specifications,' 'Will the API ever become unusable?' and 'The relationship between Jack Dorsey and Bluesky' - GIGAZINE