Bluesky guide: Questions about the 'X alternative'

What sets Bluesky apart from X, Mastodon, and other platforms? Are users aware of the world of possibilities they are in?

Since tech billionaire Elon Musk's acquisition, X (Twitter users) has been seeking alternative social platforms for various reasons. Some users believe Musk's close relationships with governments have led to censorship on the platform, while others are dissatisfied with the weak moderation, as racist or sexist comments face no barriers. Some users simply complain about Musk's constant changes to the platform's features. In any case, it is possible to say that a significant portion of users leaving X are considering platforms that feel ad-free, uncensored, and freer. Until recently, Mastodon was seen as the largest alternative to X of this kind. However, Bluesky, which has significantly improved user experience recently, has also risen to this level. The increase in Bluesky's popularity among users in Turkey was facilitated by the closure of nearly 700 X accounts following the arrest of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IBB) Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu and his team's protests. What is Bluesky? To roughly define it, Bluesky is a decentralized, text-based social media platform founded by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and currently managed by CEO Jay Graber. After a beta version in 2023 that only allowed users with invite links, it transitioned to a public platform in February 2024, reaching over 30 million users. The platform operates on an open-source framework called the AT Protocol, designed for the operation of decentralized social networks.

What is decentralization? The first concept to discuss regarding Bluesky, Mastodon, and similar platforms is decentralization. Although decentralized structures have become more prevalent in our lives with blockchain technology in recent years, they existed before. In fact, neither Bluesky nor Mastodon are platforms operating on blockchain. In the context of social media, decentralization means that control of a platform is not held by a single company (e.g., Meta or X) but rather allows users and different communities to contribute to the platform's rules, data, and algorithms. In short, it is a social media model where the user not only produces content but also contributes to how the platform operates. Some of the most important features of decentralized platforms include data control being in the hands of users (you store your data, it cannot be bought or sold), resistance to censorship (removing content is not dependent on a single authority's decision), and being open source. To meet these features, significant changes related to software and architectural structures have been developed. The main factors determining user experiences on the platforms are these structures.

Servers, protocols, federations: What ensures Bluesky's decentralization? The extent to which Bluesky and its competitors have achieved the promised decentralization has always been debatable. However, the technical infrastructure to provide decentralization is in place. We can briefly look at the components of this infrastructure provided by the framework called the AT Protocol: Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) allow users to validate and manage their digital identities without needing a central authority. DIDs protect privacy in authentication processes and only necessary information is accessed. Data is stored in secure networks like blockchain. Users have the opportunity to store their credentials in databases that are exclusively theirs.

What is a server, and what does it do? The fundamental innovation of the AT Protocol is the provision of Personal Data Servers (PDS), which are user-controlled storage spaces for social data (posts, likes, follows). To understand how this structure works, we should first discuss the function of the "server" concept. Popular platforms like X, Facebook, and Instagram are managed from a single center (the company's administrators) and a single server. Thus, all users' data is held and controlled by this center, and the control is monopolized by the individuals managing this server (the company itself). The ability of these platforms to remove some content or delete user accounts also stems from all users being on a single server. This is because the rules, functioning, design, or flow—that is, which user can see which post—are entirely dependent on the moderators managing that server. In this case, those moderators are the company's owners.

In decentralized platforms, as the name suggests, there is no single central server. Instead, servers create a series of interconnected networks. For example, while there is a single network on Twitter, there are over 5,000 networks on Mastodon. These servers can accommodate thousands of users or just a single user. You can see these in the server names displayed alongside user names on Mastodon. The largest server is "mastodon.social," while in Turkey, the "mastodon.tr" server, founded and managed by a young man named Hasan Berkay Çağır, is popular. All of this means that each server in decentralized platforms can have a different management style. In other words, each server is a "mini-social media" with its own rules and management, housing and storing its own data. So, all the rules of the "mastodon.tr" server are managed by Berkay. Users who choose to open an account on this server accept the management of the young Berkay.

This structure is the only thing preventing censorship of content and accounts or the sale of data and the mandatory display of ads to users in decentralized platforms. On the other hand, users wishing to switch servers can transfer all their data and followers to another server. It is also possible to open servers that only bind you and can house your account, specific to your name.

Can't governments delete accounts on Bluesky? On the other hand, there is no definitive data on the number of PDS actively used on Bluesky. However, it is believed to have fewer servers than Mastodon. This situation is seen as a serious obstacle to the complete decentralization Bluesky aims to achieve. Indeed, newly registered users are automatically suggested to open accounts on the "bluesky.social" server. Control of this server belongs to Bluesky's non-profit foundation, which creates some restrictions regarding decentralization. For example, actions like account deletion and content removal on this server can be performed by Bluesky management. In other words, it is still possible for governments to request the deletion of a user with a "bluesky.social" extension, resulting in that user's account being deleted. Here, the user is left to the initiative of the Bluesky foundation.

However, if you have opened your own server and created your account on Bluesky, the situation becomes somewhat different. In this case, as an administrator of your own server, you have significant powers regarding account deletion and content management. Government requests are evaluated by your server's management rather than Bluesky management. In other words, because you own your server, only you and the management that determines the rules of your server can delete your account. This depends on the position and capabilities of the administrators of that specific server (in this case, you) against governments.

'It is not entirely preventable' Cybersecurity expert and technology writer Ahmet Alphan Sabancı emphasizes that it is almost impossible for a user to operate on the internet today without leaving any traces or data. Speaking to Euronews Turkish, Sabancı says, "Being able to set up your own servers or being somewhere other than a central server can provide advantages in many ways, but its effects on security will be limited." He adds, "The fundamental reason for this is that the internet technology we call social media inevitably requires us to share some basic data about ourselves, and this data must be collected to define our accounts. While it is possible to reduce this to some extent, completely preventing it is not feasible for either Bluesky or Mastodon."

"However, what is really important here are the details like who manages the server where your account is located and where that server is. For example, the scope of data that a server hosted in Turkey must collect and share with official institutions is different than that for a server in Sweden," Sabancı states, adding, "At the same time, where the person managing your server lives or their technical expertise is also crucial. No matter how well-intentioned you are, it would be safer to be on one of the central servers than to be under a team that cannot manage these servers well and securely and cannot protect against technical attacks or data requests when necessary."

'Unlike Elon Musk, they can take risks' However, Sabancı notes, "Bluesky is designed to be more secure compared to other platforms, and this certainly makes it a safer and more user-focused place than large platforms like X." According to the cybersecurity expert, what makes Bluesky more resilient is that its management adopts a user protection-focused approach. "Elon Musk can accept censorship and data requests so easily because what he cares about most is not the users but himself and his company. The Bluesky management, taking advantage of being a non-profit organization, can put users first and take risks to do what is best for them."

What distinguishes Bluesky from Mastodon and other decentralized platforms? Fundamentally, Bluesky is based on a different protocol than Mastodon's. Mastodon is built on ActivityPub, a well-established protocol that the open internet community has worked on and developed for years. This protocol includes not only Mastodon but also several other social media platforms. One of them is the video platform PeerTube, similar to YouTube, while Pixelfed, similar to Instagram, also operates on this protocol. Thanks to a feature known as the federated universe (fediverse), Mastodon can communicate with other platforms on ActivityPub. This means you can perform all your activities on Mastodon simultaneously on these platforms.

Sabancı explains this feature as follows: "We can summarize it as a technology where social media is more similar to email. Mastodon is based on ActivityPub, while Bluesky is based on a protocol called ATProto. This means it is possible to use Bluesky according to your wish with an account opened through another site built with ATProto technology, just like someone with a Gmail account can send an email to an address on Outlook or another site without any issues."

However, there are challenges created by Mastodon's structure in terms of user experience. For example, it can be difficult for users on two different servers to find each other. Because if people who have never communicated before are on different servers, they cannot see each other's posts and accounts. The Bluesky team fundamentally wanted to overcome this issue and make the application easier and more comfortable for users. Therefore, instead of establishing an application on ActivityPub, they developed their own protocols and added a structure called "relay server" to the platform. Since each user owns their data on Bluesky, a "channel" is needed for the parties to see this data. Relay servers are those channels.

The relay system indexes the entire network and distributes the content appropriately while determining which content is shown to which users. For example, one relay may only distribute scientific content, while another may only distribute local news; it can also hide certain content (for example, spam or hate speech). This provides thematic filtering and curation, unlike Mastodon. It also makes the network more modular and flexible.

In summary, this server system works as follows:

• PDS: Content is stored here. It can belong to any user.
• Relay servers: They communicate this content to others and make it visible.
• Applications or websites: These are interfaces that display this content to the end user (for example, the Bluesky application).

For Bluesky, the default relay is generally hosted on subdomains like "wss://bsky.network" or similar. Since PDS is responsible for connecting to relay servers, the details of the relay server are found in the PDS configuration or documentation. Sabancı states, "It is possible to say that Bluesky is more advantageous than Mastodon in evaluating this kind of migration. One of the fundamental reasons for this is ease of use, even though it uses newer and more advanced technology in the background, it offers an experience that everyone is familiar with and can start using quickly with very little new learning."

Is it possible for Bluesky to become mainstream? At this point, the question arises: Do all these features allow Bluesky to become mainstream and take the place of X? According to Sabancı, another advantage of Bluesky in terms of mainstreaming is that it has gained user and activity weight in the global internet. "Especially in the US and Europe, many people we could consider 'power users' on social media actively use this platform. The likelihood that people from Turkey who see this audience will stay will increase even more."

On the other hand, Sabancı believes the most important thing here is to be a conscious internet user and to increase media literacy. "My fundamental advice is to not see this as just moving from one platform to another but to turn it into an opportunity to reconsider your internet usage habits," says the cybersecurity expert, adding, "Don't just open a new account; think about what you don't like on X and what you see as harmful and look for ways to cleanse those from your internet usage. Consider this move as a spring cleaning that will also make your internet use healthier."