Jack Dorsey is breaking up with Bluesky. The co-founder of Twitter (now known as X) has abdicated his position on the Bluesky board and deleted his account on the decentralized X alternative he initially backed.
Dorsey’s support helped Bluesky gain ground as an X alternative during the chaotic early months of Elon Musk‘s reign as “Chief Twit.” The decentralized social media protocol seemed to be maintaining its momentum at the start of 2024, when it grew its base to include nearly five million users. Dorsey’s sudden resignation from the board upset that harmony. As the former Twitter boss severed ties with Bluesky, he called X “freedom technology” and advised his followers to put their trust in it.
Days later, Dorsey expanded on his falling out with Bluesky during an interview with Mike Solana of Founders Fund. The 47-year-old tech exec explained that he initially envisioned Bluesky as a protocol that could be put into place on the-platform-formerly-known-as-Twitter. Decentralized social media remained a priority at Twitter even after Dorsey’s departure, but after Musk’s takeover and rebrand, Bluesky emerged as a separate entity.
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Now, Dorsey says, Bluesky is “repeating all the mistakes” that affected Twitter during his reign. He took particular issue with Bluesky’s decision to step up moderation; in Dorsey’s mind, that decision limits the free expression of users. “Bluesky saw this exodus of people from Twitter show up, and it was a very, very common crowd,” Dorsey said. “But little by little, they started asking Jay and the team for moderation tools, and to kick people off. And unfortunately they followed through with it.”
Rather than supporting Bluesky, Dorsey is now backing Nostr, another decentralized social media protocol. “I know it’s early, and Nostr is weird and hard to use, but if you truly believe in censorship resistance and free speech, you have to use the technologies that actually enable that, and defend your rights,” Dorsey said.
Dorsey’s about-face has not sat well with Bluesky brass. Paul Frazee, the engineer who has served as the mouthpiece for some of Bluesky’s most innovative features, suggested that Dorsey has misrepresented the platform’s purpose. “Unmoderated spaces are a ridiculous idea,” he said. “We created a shared network for competing moderated spaces to exist.”
As for the idea that Twitter/X would be the first client to adopt the Bluesky protocol? Frazee claimed that a certain someone made sure that didn’t happen. “Elon killed that straight dead,” he said.
