Bluesky's logo. (Courtesy of Bluesky)
A great migration is occurring online.
Users are fleeing Elon Musk's toxic X in droves and rushing over to Bluesky, in a post-election resettling that is giving way to a new social media order at a critical moment in American democracy.
Over the past week, more than 1.5 million people have joined Bluesky. The social media platform surged on Wednesday to become the No. 1 most-downloaded application in Apple's App Store. Meanwhile, Google Trends data has shown a spike for searches seeking instructions on how to deactivate X — and users seem to be following through. Data from analytics firm SimilarWeb found that X deactivations have effectively boarded a rocket ship.
The trend shows no signs of slowing down. If anything, it is accelerating. Power users have reported losing thousands of followers over the past week as people deactivate their accounts and set up shop elsewhere.
Don Lemon, who is in active litigation against Musk over a deal he had inked with the erratic billionaire which (predictably) went sideways, announced Wednesday that he was leaving X. “I once believed it was a place for honest debate and discussion, transparency, and free speech, but I now feel it does not serve that purpose,” Lemon said. Soon after, he…
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The Information Wars
Alex Jones. (Photo by Joe Buglewicz/Getty Images)
Infowars on the Brink: We are on the precipice of learning the fate of Alex Jones’ conspiracy empire, Infowars. Bids were reviewed by a court-appointed trustee on Wednesday for the right-wing outlet. The trustee, I’m told, is expected to announce the winner of the bidding process soon, potentially as early as Thursday.
MAGA Media’s Loss: Sad! MAGA Media warriors — such as Elon Musk, Tucker Carlson, and Charlie Kirk, among others — went all in pushing Rick Scott for Senate majority leader. But the secret vote in the upper chamber rendered another leader: John Thune. It was a rare loss for the right-wing media machine, which exerts significant power over the GOP. And perhaps the final outcome would have been different had the vote not been by secret ballot. “They do a secret ballot because they're terrified of you,” Kirk said after the vote Wednesday. He’s really not far off base.
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Friends of Fox: Even the hosts at Fox News realize that the right-wing network is staffing the incoming Trump administration. Greg Gutfeld joked Wednesday on "The Five" that his show keeps losing regular guests. "I think the Gutfeld show is going to be staffing the entire White House," Gutfeld quipped. Later on his program, Jesse Watters joked, "I know the entire cabinet and I'll be asking for special favors." The two might have made their comments in jest, but their statements are rooted in reality.
► Trump continued assembling a Fox News cabinet on Wednesday when he nominated Matt Gaetz (a regular network guest) for attorney general and Tulsi Gabbard (a former contributor) to be director of national intelligence.
The Fourth Estate
Status Scoop | Axed at ABC: Two senior ABC News’ers were quietly given the boot over the last month. I’m told that…
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