In the social media wars, Bluesky is destroying Truth Social

In November 2024, a left-leaning cohort of social users ran to Bluesky. The movement made the platform a liberal haven—and more popular than far-right alternative Truth Social. 

According to a new report from The Righting, Bluesky’s November user share toppled Truth Social’s. Where Bluesky had 5.325 million unique visitors, Truth Social had 4.25 million. Of course, that’s nowhere near X, which consistently pulls in more than 130 million unique visitors per month in the U.S. But the shift could be a sign of changing positions in the niche market; as Bluesky rises, Truth Social sinks deeper into trouble. 

Bluesky is on the rise

While Bluesky has been around since early 2023, November 2024 was undoubtedly its breakthrough month. That was the month of the presidential election, when Donald Trump won himself a spot back in the nation’s highest office. It was also the month that Elon Musk’s insider relationship with Trump—and how he would wield it for political power—became increasingly visible. Liberals fled Musk’s X for the nearest alternative, with many opting for Bluesky. 

Now there are figures to understand the scale of that exodus. In November, Bluesky hit 20 million total users, with COO Rose Wang acknowledging that the company was growing so quickly that it was racing to secure more servers. On unique visitors alone, Bluesky grew 1,048% from November 2023 to November 2024, per The Righting. While Threads faced continued algorithm complaints, and alternatives like Mastodon faded into obscurity, Bluesky’s numbers continued to rise and rise again.

Of course, that growth rate wasn’t sustainable. It’s since slowed, with the app’s user count now sitting just above 26 million. Only a few months ago, it seemed like X and Threads were stealing all of Bluesky’s features; now the reverse may be true. And other issues have emerged, like the prevalence of AI bots. But there’s no question that Bluesky has made it into the social media pantheon, far more than its alternately partisan twin, Truth Social, ever did. 

Can Truth Social survive? 

While Bluesky captures a certain left-leaning user base, Truth Social is still struggling to pin down the right. The two apps blew up with curiously similar audiences: Those trying to avoid then-Twitter for political reasons. Truth Social took flight after Trump was banned from Twitter for inciting the January 6 insurrection in 2021. For years, it was the only place you could find Trump’s paragraphs-long posts—and thus it became a watering hole for the alt-right. 

Truth Social hasn’t stopped growing. According to the Righting report, the app is up 39% in unique visitors year over year. But it’s having a sort of identity crisis, one that won’t be solved anytime soon. As Trump picks up his posting on X, and as the app becomes more and more welcoming to right-wingers, who is Truth Social for anymore? There’s no more big bad Twitter to fuel its growth. 

Truth Social isn’t likely to shut down in the near term. After all, Trump still owns a controlling share of the company. But its fate could be worse than collapse: It could become, or perhaps already is, obsolete.

https://www.fastcompany.com/91255918/in-the-social-media-wars-bluesky-is-destroying-truth-social?partner=rss&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=rss+fastcompany&utm_content=rss