by Kandiss Edwards
January 15, 2025
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens is becoming a member of BlueSky.
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens is leaving X (previously Twitter) in favor of Bluesky, a rising social media platform. Whereas he didn’t present a particular motive for the change, he inspired his followers to comply with him on Bluesky.
Regardless of his departure from X, Dickens emphasised that any emergency communications would nonetheless be posted on the platform.
“Efficient immediately, I’m leaving,” he wrote. “Within the occasion of an emergency, updates will nonetheless be posted right here. Keep related: comply with me on BlueSky (http://andreforatlanta.com) and be a part of me there when you haven’t already. I’m excited to proceed the dialog on this new platform!”
Efficient immediately, I’m leaving X. Within the occasion of an emergency, updates will nonetheless be posted right here. Keep related: comply with me on BlueSky (https://t.co/bsRXqXJ3ml) and be a part of me there when you haven’t already. I’m excited to proceed the dialog on this new platform!
— Andre Dickens (@andreforatlanta) January 14, 2025
Because the re-election of President-elect Donald Trump, Dickens isn’t the one notable determine to depart X, which has seen an increase in consumer dissatisfaction. Main as much as the election, many customers voiced issues a few important enhance in right-wing content material and compelled interactions with Elon Musk, the platform’s proprietor.
Some customers reported that Musk’s posts, in addition to different pro-Trump content material, dominated their feeds, even when that they had blocked Musk. A research carried out by the Queensland College of Know-how backed up these issues.
The analysis discovered that Musk’s content material noticed a dramatic surge in engagement, together with his posts receiving 138 p.c extra views and 238 p.c extra retweets after his endorsement of Trump. The research’s findings steered that sure posts, significantly these aligned with Musk’s views, skilled a visibility increase that wasn’t consistent with common platform tendencies.
This raised questions on whether or not the algorithm was influencing public discourse and whether or not the platform remained impartial.
“The outcomes suggest that whereas some features of engagement on the platform seem to have been enhanced broadly, particular visibility benefits might have been selectively utilized, elevating necessary questions concerning the potential affect of algorithmic changes on public discourse and the ‘neutrality’ of social media platforms as data carriers,” the report acknowledged.
Following the presidential election, X’s replace to its phrases of service additional fueled issues, significantly round private information safety and the way AI could be used to curate content material, doubtlessly involving customers’ mental property. These adjustments contributed to a rising mistrust of the platform, with many outstanding customers deciding to depart in favor of options like Bluesky.
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