Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens is leaving X (formerly Twitter) in favor of Bluesky, a rising social media platform. While he did not provide a specific reason for the switch, he encouraged his followers to follow him on Bluesky.
Despite his departure from X, Dickens emphasized that any emergency communications would still be posted on the platform.
“Effective today, I’m leaving,” he wrote. “In the event of an emergency, updates will still be posted here. Stay connected: follow me on BlueSky (http://andreforatlanta.com) and join me there if you haven’t already. I’m excited to continue the conversation on this new platform!”
Effective today, I’m leaving X. In the event of an emergency, updates will still be posted here. Stay connected: follow me on BlueSky (https://t.co/bsRXqXJ3ml) and join me there if you haven’t already. I’m excited to continue the conversation on this new platform!
— Andre Dickens (@andreforatlanta) January 14, 2025
Since the re-election of President-elect Donald Trump, Dickens isn’t the only notable figure to depart X, which has seen a rise in user dissatisfaction. Leading up to the election, many users voiced concerns about a significant increase in right-wing content and forced interactions with Elon Musk, the platform’s owner.
Some users reported that Musk’s posts, as well as other pro-Trump content, dominated their feeds, even if they had blocked Musk. A study conducted by the Queensland University of Technology backed up these concerns.
The research found that Musk’s content saw a dramatic surge in engagement, with his posts receiving 138 percent more views and 238 percent more retweets after his endorsement of Trump. The study’s findings suggested that certain posts, particularly those aligned with Musk’s views, experienced a visibility boost that wasn’t in line with general platform trends.
This raised questions about whether the algorithm was influencing public discourse and whether the platform remained neutral.
“The results imply that while some aspects of engagement on the platform appear to have been enhanced broadly, specific visibility advantages may have been selectively applied, raising important questions about the potential impact of algorithmic adjustments on public discourse and the ‘neutrality’ of social media platforms as information carriers,” the report stated.
Following the presidential election, X’s update to its terms of service further fueled concerns, particularly around personal data security and how AI might be used to curate content, potentially involving users’ intellectual property. These changes contributed to a growing distrust of the platform, with many prominent users deciding to leave in favor of alternatives like Bluesky.
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