Bluesky Stumbles Following Twitter/X's New Blocking Policy

Twitter's unconventional alternative, Bluesky, recently faced challenges following an announcement by Twitter/X about discontinuing the block function in favor of mutes. The issue manifested in slowed loading times and error messages when attempting to view posts on Bluesky. Embedded images and graphics, too, took their time to load, adding to the growing inconvenience for the users.

The adverse effects on Bluesky were not isolated. In precedence, any unwelcome changes brought forth by Twitter often led to an influx of users migrating to Bluesky. Despite this, it’s unconfirmed whether the current troubles sprung from simultaneous factors or just an unfortunate coincidence. Bluesky’s app's inner workings, known as the AT Protocol, revealed that the problem lay with the PDS - the "Personal Data Server" in charge of routing network requests and managing virtual repositories.

With the situation escalating, Bluesky started to lose its grip on the users. Techmeme CEO Gabe Rivera reported that his news pages were unable to post to Bluesky due to the platform's APIs timing out. As customary during such times, users on Twitter started the hashtag trends, Bluesky and threads, hinting that users may be contemplating migration away from Twitter/X in response to the shocking news.

But Bluesky showed resilience amidst the storm. Steadily, the issues on Bluesky started to get resolved. A quick check on their status page relayed that the main problem had been rectified, although some images might still fail to load. Rest assured; a team was actively working on addressing this lingering issue. A clear silver lining on an overcast day.

It is intriguing that Twitter has often been the place where users are directed toward Bluesky. Referral data suggests that several months back, 86% of the social referrals to Bluesky's website were coming from Twitter. However, over the past 28 days, that figure dipped to 78.8%. Whether the recent troubles will dent Bluesky's image or make it come out stronger, only time will tell. Meanwhile, Twitter/X continued to slow down referral traffic to its competitors, such as Threads and Bluesky, keeping the rivalry red hot and viewers on edge.