Bluesky gains a million new users from Brazil after X ban

Bluesky reports that it has gained a million new users towards the end of August and in early September following a ban on Elon Musk's X in Brazil. Bluesky is one of the popular alternatives that sprung up in reaction to Elon Musk acquiring Twitter.

On August 31, it was reported by Neowin that Brazil's Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes has ordered X to be banned in the country. The ban included an "immediate, complete, and total suspension of X's operations" in the country. It was initially the case too that Apple and Google would need to remove X from their Brazilian app stores but this measure was removed to prevent disruption to "third-party companies".

Trouble started for X when Elon Musk decided to reactivate the accounts of supporters of former president, Jair Bolsonaro. Similar to Donald Trump, Bolsonaro is described as right to far-right or as a populist. His supporters also stormed government buildings after he lost the last election and they called for a coup to install him, unsuccessfully.

In response to the reactivation of the accounts, Justice Alexandre de Moraes opened an investigation into X which culminated in its ban from the country. X cannot be used by citizens or businesses in the country and there is a fine of 50,000 Brazilian Real (around $8,900) for anyone who attempts to circumvent the block.

Bluesky is in many ways very similar to Twitter from a few years ago, even the blue and white color scheme is the same and its logo is also a winged animal - a butterfly, rather than a bird. It launched as an invite-only service at first but became available to everybody in February this year.

According to an unofficial stats page Bluesky has 7.79 million users in total. This figure is dwarfed by another Twitter alternative, Meta's Threads, which now boasts 175 million users.