X Terms and Conditions, Bluesky, X vs Bluesky, Bluesky Owner, X users exodus, Why X users joining Bluesky: Ever since Donald Trump registered a historic win at the US Elections 2024 defeating Democrat candidate Kamala Harris, X has been witnessing a concerning development. As per reports, X has been witnessing an exodus of its users to Bluesky. Till November 16, at least 15,000 users quit X and joined another social media platform named Bluesky.
Interestingly, Elon Musk has been receiving criticism from a section of the media as became one of the major endorsers of Donald Trump during the US Elections 2024. Trump on the other hand has awarded the billionaire with the top post in the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). However, it is worth mentioning that Musk supporting Trump is not the only reason why X is witnessing an exodus of users. Below is X users quitting reason-
Why thousands of users are quitting X?
The answer is its terms and conditions. As per the US website NewsNationNow, the new terms and conditions allow Elon Musk-owned social media platform X to use your tweets, photos, and videos to train Grok, its AI platform. It empowers X to use your data even though your account is private.
The terms and condition read, "You agree that this license includes the right for us to (i) analyze text and other information you provide … for use with and training of our machine learning and artificial intelligence models, whether generative or another type."
Furthermore, users will not be paid for their content, which could end up in the hands of other companies, organizations, or individuals. The report further suggests that X will not monitor posts for truthfulness. However, it is pertinent to mention here that X indeed runs a fact check from its own end and it generally flags fake or misleading tweets.
“You may be exposed to Content that might be offensive, harmful, inaccurate or otherwise inappropriate, or in some cases, postings that have been mislabeled or are otherwise deceptive,” the terms further reads as quoted by the US media.
Any content that violates the User Agreement may be removed, but X notes that users may be removed for “no reason at our convenience” or if “you create risk or possible legal exposure for us.”
“The service itself, the experience, has changed dramatically,” said Colby Hall, founding editor of news organization Mediaite, on NewsNation Now. “It’s his company. He can do whatever he wants.”
Other new terms include a $15,000 fine if users view more than a million tweets in a day. Not only this, but users are also banned from suing X as a plaintiff or as a member in a class-action lawsuit.
What is Bluesky and who owns it?
Bluesky is also a micro-blogging social media website. It's appearance is much similar to a now shut-down Indian microblogging social media Koo. As per BBC, Bluesky was created by none other than former Twitter (now X) Jack Dorsey. However. Dorsey is no longer part of the team behind it, having stepped down from the board in May 2024. He deleted his account altogether in September. The report suggests that Dorsey wanted Bluesky to be a decentralised version of Twitter that no single person or entity owns.
Currently, Bluesky is predominantly owned by chief executive Jay Graber as a US public benefit corporation.