Bluesky shows trends similar to larger social media sites despite unique features: Study

New Delhi: Trends on Bluesky, dubbed an alternative to X, resemble those on existing, larger social media platforms, such as a few users driving most interactions, despite its unique features like feed customisation, according to a new study.

Researchers from the University of Zurich, Switzerland, also found that despite the platform's left-of-centre ideology, discussions on polarising issues, such as the Israel-Palestine conflict, skewed towards the left on the political spectrum.

The findings, published in the journal PLOS One, suggested that divisions among users can occur even on a platform that is otherwise aligned.

Launched as an invite-only service to a limited number of users in February 2023, Bluesky is a decentralised social media platform where users can share short posts containing text, images and videos. Examples of centralised social media include X, formerly Twitter.

Bluesky is seen as an alternative to X as the platform allows users to customise their feeds, thereby giving them more control over the content they see.

According to the researchers, this feature allows users the ability to curate their experiences.

However, despite Bluesky's unique structure, the team found that user interactions on the platform are similar to those of many other platforms, in that a few highly active users dominate the landscape.

The study analysed the microblogging site's trajectory since its launch till May 2024, when it hosted about 5.7 million users. The team examined its network structure and trends in polarisation, along with political leanings of users.

"We conclude by claiming that Bluesky -- for all its novel features -- is very similar in its network structure to existing and larger social media sites and provides unprecedented research opportunities for social scientists, network scientists and political scientists alike," the authors wrote.

The team also noted that spikes in users signing up to the platform were often "correlated with news about Twitter".

For example, Bluesky saw its highest number of new sign-ups after X's current owner Elon Musk announced he might charge users a monthly fee for accessing the platform.

The second highest spike in Bluesky's new users was observed in July 2023 when users of X experienced a bug interrupting their access.

The responses show that many X users see Bluesky as the closest alternative, the authors said.

However, politically, Bluesky appears to be largely left-leaning, with over 60 per cent of links shared among users leading to left-leaning websites, the team said.

Centrist sources were found to make up about 20 per cent of the links shared while only 8 per cent led to right-leaning websites.

Despite the platform's left inclinations, the users were polarised on the issue of the Israel-Palestine conflict, the authors said.

Posts on Israel-Palestine relations, which were largely neutral prior to the October 7 attacks, were seen to skew towards pro-Palestine afterwards, they said.

The authors added that the polarisation suggests that divisions among a platform's users can occur even in networks that are otherwise politically aligned, and future research could probe these splits.