blue sky It is a fashionable social network. In recent weeks, this youth forum emerged as an internal project in 2019 Twitter Its user base worldwide has doubled and now numbers more than 23 million. election victory of Donald Trump in the United States and their proximity to technology giants Elon Muskowner of xHas promoted digital migration from which Blue Butterfly Company is benefiting.
rose wangThe 33-year-old is the chief operating officer of Bluesky. After earning a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Harvard University, she went through several digital startups until joining the project jay graberIts executive director, of the same age. Bluesky’s growth has been so tremendous that 20 of its employees still don’t have an office to work remotely. That’s why Wang joins EL Periodico on video call from his home in San Francisco.
Why is BlueSky growing so much and so fast?
We launched BlueSky in February and in the first week we added one million users in Japan. Later when Brazil temporarily blocked X and Lula (President of Brazil) opened an account many others joined. And now it’s happening in the United States and Canada, which has sparked the interest of many media outlets. There’s an appetite for what we’re trying to create. And that’s because Bluesky puts users first when choosing.
What new does it bring that X or Threads don’t already offer?
There is no place for breaking news anymore. Sorry, Twitter X (laughs) has become a biased place that only promotes certain profiles and Facebook no longer promotes news. A big reason for Bluesky’s success is that people come to get information, but stay because they get more engagement and make friends. People want to have a good time without being disturbed.
There is no place for breaking news anymore. Twitter is a partisan place and Facebook no longer promotes information.
BlueSky is built on an open protocol. What are the benefits of that structure?
We’re opening up the data so any user can design their own ‘feed’ or moderation service. Social networks have become walled-off guardians and we want an open website like email, which lets us connect from Gmail to Yahoo! Allows sending messages. The open protocol allows users to create their own forum and invite their friends to talk and create a community. People had become accustomed to consuming what was recommended by algorithms and had forgotten what it meant to share.
Could this philosophy change with the arrival of new investors?
Just because they invested the money to keep Bluesky running doesn’t mean they have control. The company is led by Jay (Graeber, CEO) and team.
You have doubts about funds financing you from the cryptocurrency sector. Will you integrate them into the platform?
Blockchain Capital has invested in us (pioneer). $15 million round) because it supports the decentralization that Bluesky represents, but we will not integrate cryptocurrencies into our social experience. We want to be independent and autonomous. Therefore, at the end of the year we will launch a subscription plan. Of course, this won’t help increase the visibility of your messages (as X does).
People had become accustomed to consuming what was recommended by algorithms and had forgotten what it meant to share.
You’re a team of just 20 people moderating content from 23 million users. How can this be possible?
Until now we were managing it with a small group, but we have decided to quadruple our staff of content moderators, from 25 to 100 employees. We have automated systems that mark which posts for review, but users also have the control to report posts that may violate our policies. Restraint is governance.
The European Commission has indicated that Bluesky would be in breach of rules by not specifying how many users it has in the EU or where it is legally established. How do you plan to accomplish this? Will they open a European delegation?
We strongly intend to comply with the European Directive. We are a small company that operates remotely, so we currently have no plans to open a headquarters in the EU. Our priority is to maintain the application so that it remains online.
BlueSky has promised not to use user content to train AI systems, but As already seenNothing prevents a third party from doing this. How will this be avoided?
Our data is open because we want to avoid returning to the closed advertising models of other companies (which use it to sell personalized ads). We are exploring ways to allow users to state whether or not they consent to the use of their data for AI, but whether this is respected will depend on the decision of developers and companies. (blue sky have communicated that “You will not be able to enforce this consent outside of our system”).
