Where the Sky is Blue

A new social network is designed to learn from the bad calls made by the likes of Musk and Zuckerberg

"Blue Skies, smiling at me...." by jimflix! is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

Social-media barons hate Substack. Elon Musk of X (formerly Twitter) and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, Instagram and Threads want to keep people locked onto their own platforms, rather than making it easy for users to click off and go and read a thoughtful essay published on a site run by a pesky upstart. Both moguls have told their employees to deploy algorithms that downplay links to other sites, with a strong bias against links to Substack.

In order to promote our essays, bloggers like me often have to resort to cheap tricks to get past the biased algorithms. We put the links in the comments to a teaser post; we use sites like TinyURL to disguise the destination when we do post the link; and we say “S*b*st*ck” instead of “Substack” when we have to mention the platform by name. Some authors have even set up alternative websites that automatically re-route readers to Substack.

Jack Dorsey, the man who founded Twitter and acted as its first CEO, correctly identified the two problems that allow the likes of Musk and Zuckerberg to take decisions like this, which protect their own narrow interests without necessarily serving the best interests of their users. The first is that that users of most social-media platforms have no say in how the site’s algorithms are set. The second is that all decision-making by the companies that own the platforms is centralised.

Dorsey announced a Twitter spinoff called Bluesky in 2019 that would address both issues. He resigned as Twitter CEO in November 2021 and officially launched the new site in October 2022, just as Musk completed his controversial takeover of Twitter, which was soon renamed as X. Bluesky grew slowly based on waiting lists and invitation codes before being opened up to the general public in February. Despite its origins as a spinoff of Twitter, it is independent of X.

Under the leadership of board member Dorsey, CEO Jay Graber (who owns the majority of the startup’s equity) and inventor Jeremie Miller, Bluesky has two main innovations. The first is to let users choose their own algorithmic settings. The second is to work towards federation. In future, anyone will be able to create their own server with their own rules on Bluesky’s Authenticated Transfer (AT) Protocol. 

The AT Protocol is an open-source code that has been released under a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) License, which means that the development process is public. The site is also moving towards independent moderation, with custom approaches that can be layered on top of basic default settings.

How will Bluesky make money? The company has yet to announce its exact plans, but it has dropped hints. It has said that it won’t rely just on advertising, but it won’t be dogmatic about not doing ads; and it could consider a paid subscription model. It will also sell custom domains. For example, a newspaper could pay to have its own domain and distribute addresses to its journalists.

There are interesting parallels with Mastodon, a site that received many people who fled Twitter/X in protest at Musk’s bad decisions. Mastodon is non-algorithmic; and it is based on a network of independent servers. It is run by volunteers without turning a profit. Although Mastodon is a fine project, the lack of algorithms gives it an artisanal feel that is very different from other social networks. It is an acquired taste.

My feeling is that Dorsey’s bet on algorithmic freedom combined with federation will turn out to be a good one. Algorithms can be very powerful tools. Honesty and openness about how they are used could be a game-changer. Would the Flat Earth conspiracy theory have got off the ground if YouTube had let users choose their own algorithmic settings? I have my doubts.

Ordinary users join these sites to connect with each other; and many resent what they see as manipulation of their feeds to serve the interests of the networks’ owners. Being able to set your own algorithms is a step towards a healthier future.

Federation could prevent billionaires turning popular social-media networks into their private fiefdoms, as Musk has done, following in the footsteps of many press barons in the pre-internet age. There will be synergies between federation and algorithmic freedom, in my view.

Despite the clever design parameters, my experience is that Bluesky, which is a microblogging site like Twitter/X, is still much too quiet. There are economies of scale in social networks. Bluesky still only has 5m users or so, compared to 1.8m monthly active users at Mastodon. Both are minnows compared to X, which still has 225m daily active users despite Musk’s repeated bad calls.

If you think the next generation of social-media sites could and should improve, why not join the early members of Bluesky? You can find the site here. Just sign up and start following a few people (including me). Whenever you share something on another network, put it on Bluesky too - you don’t need to give up Facebook or Twitter as you wait for Bluesky to gain critical mass. We can slowly build a better future together on the new site.

With a bit of luck, Bluesky will take off in the months ahead if enough of us take the hint and get actively involved. Yes, I am talking to you! If you’re not on Bluesky yet, why not? If you are, when was the last time you posted something?

If Bluesky does take off, the combination of algorithmic freedom and federation could create a safe space for essayists and bloggers, who want to share our thoughts with the world without worrying about whether or not our modest projects happen to be inconvenient for Silicon Valley billionaires. Other communities will also find ways of benefiting from the combination too.

This week’s essay doesn’t include any hyperlinks to previous essays. Do you prefer this style? Or do you like the references? Would you have liked to have seen a link to my essay on algorithms? Or the most recent one on Musk’s mistakes at X? Would the essay have benefited from links to articles in the press about Bluesky?

My thinking behind packing most essays with links is that it creates multiple rabbit holes with lots of routes through the critical-thinking material for people who need it. I might be wrong, though. Do you think new readers would have appreciated the links? Please let me know what you think - the comments are open. See you next week!

Further Reading

Poems that Solve Puzzles: The History and Science of Algorithms by Chris Bleakley

This essay is released with a CC BY-NY-ND license. Please link to sharpenyouraxe.substack.com if you re-use this material.

Sharpen Your Axe is a project to develop a community who want to think critically about the media, conspiracy theories and current affairs without getting conned by gurus selling fringe views. Please subscribe to get this content in your inbox every week. Shares on social media are appreciated!

If this is the first post you have seen, I recommend starting with the third anniversary post. You can also find an ultra-cheap Kindle book here. If you want to read the book on your phone, tablet or computer, you can download the Kindle software for Android, Apple or Windows for free.

Opinions expressed on Substack and Substack Notes, as well as on Bluesky, Mastodon, Post and X (formerly Twitter), are those of Rupert Cocke as an individual and do not reflect the opinions or views of the organization where he works or its subsidiaries.