A week since the U.S. election and social media is becoming more fragmented than ever
What’s clear is that a swath of social media users find themselves in flux, shifting between platforms or considering doing so as politics reshapes the discourse. This could spell opportunity for Musk, given his ties to Trump. Equally, it presents a chance for other platforms to gain traction by steering clear of such overt political alignment. And in particular, platforms such as Bluesky and Threads, which from their beginnings, have specifically positioned themselves and their narratives as being alternative, opposite platforms to X; happier places to interact without the barrage of politically skewed rhetoric.
Bluesky, for example, is a decentralized platform, meaning users can interact with users on different platforms, provided they’re built on the same protocol foundations. But, more importantly, it means users have more control over their data and interactions.
Threads is also in the process of becoming Meta’s first decentralized platform as the team works to integrate it with social networking protocol ActivityPub. Unlike X, Threads doesn’t focus on “real time” posts, but instead its algorithm, just like on Meta’s other platforms, recommends posts it believes users want to see more of.
