Twitter Competitor Bluesky Experiences Issues Following Announcement
Bluesky, a competitor to Twitter, is facing problems after Elon Musk revealed that X will no longer support the “block” function, opting for mutes only. Users on Bluesky have reported slow load times and occasional error messages when trying to access posts. The loading of images and graphics has also been sluggish. Additionally, the site’s status page indicates ongoing performance issues under investigation.
The company frequently deals with an influx of users whenever Twitter introduces an unfavorable change, which might be the case here. However, the Bluesky team has not confirmed the cause or whether the timing is coincidental.
Data obtained from a source leveraging the Bluesky API shows a significant increase in new user registrations in the past 24 hours (5,616 compared to 536 in the preceding 24 hours). This suggests that more people are taking advantage of invite codes to join the decentralized social media platform.
On the Bluesky status page, a message states that they are experiencing degraded Personal Data Server (PDS) performance and are currently investigating the issue. According to AT Protocol docs, PDS refers to a “Personal Data Server” that acts as an account’s trusted agent, routes client network requests, and hosts repositories.
Gabe Rivera, CEO of Techmeme, highlights that his news sites had to stop posting to Bluesky due to timeouts when using its APIs.
Recent updates indicate that Bluesky’s issues are gradually being resolved. The status page now mentions that the main problem has been fixed but acknowledges that image loading may still be problematic, with a fix currently underway.
Meanwhile, both Bluesky and Threads (another competitor to Twitter) are trending terms on X, suggesting that a migration from Twitter to these alternatives might be imminent as users react to the surprising news.
While there isn’t a reliable way to track Bluesky’s performance outside of the status page, Twitter has historically been a significant source of referrals to the rival network. Similarweb data shows that a few months ago, 86% of social referrals to Bluesky’s website (bsky.app) came from twitter.com. However, in the past 28 days, this figure dropped to 78.8%. The overall daily traffic to the site also decreased from its peak in mid-July.
Recently, X has been slowing down referral traffic to various websites, including its competitors like Threads and Bluesky.
