Is an X exodus on the cards as major sports teams open BlueSky accounts

The process had already started and became accentuated after the US elections.

Hundreds and thousands of X (Twitter) users had become disenfranchised with the platform claiming that under Elon Musk, X had become a toxic environment where far-right conspiracies were permitted to flourish with the platform becoming an unchecked haven for racist, sexist and ideologies that violate human rights.

This week has seen the process accelerate with the bombshell dropping on Wednesday when UK media giant The Guardian (with 80 accounts and over 27 million users) confirmed that they would no longer post content on X.

In parallel, BlueSky has seen a surge of new users and the app is currently No. 1 spot on the Apple App Store’s US chart this week.

Bluesky’s user base has doubled in the past 90 days with the company said (on Tuesday) it had gained 1 million new sign-ups in the past week alone, bringing it to more than 15 million total users (which is still a long way off X’s 240 million active daily users). Three days later, the overall BlueSky user number is just shy of the 17 million mark as more and more users abandon X.

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Sport and BlueSky

As things stand, only one sporting institution has followed The Guardian’s stance and adopted a policy of turning their back on using X as a social media platform with Bundesliga’s FC St. Pauli confirming that they will no longer post on X with the club moving to BlueSky.

With over 250,000 followers, the Hamburg based outfit confirmed that they would no longer use the hate machine but ‘content of the last 11 years will remain online in view of its contemporary historical value’.

In US sports, a handful of teams have opened BlueSky accounts this week with the likes of Dallas Mavericks, Phoenix Suns and Denver Nuggets all now active on the new platform.

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Interestingly, OKC Thunder and NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles and Detroit Lions have had profiles on the platform since September 2023 when access to BlueSky was by invitation only.

In the world of football, Seattle Seahawks, 49ers are also newcomers to the site with the likes of Miami Dolphins and NY Giants having profiles but yet to generate any considerable content.

Also, this week saw NFL’s Seattle Kraken and MLB team Cleveland Guardians among the new sporting franchises that kicked off their Bluesky presence.

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X sporting exodus?

At this point in time it’s difficult to tell if any US sports team will adopt a policy as per St.Pauli and completely turn their back on X with some teams boasting a follower count in the millions.

Speaking on the Sports Media Podcast, social media expert Richard Deitsch stated: “Manchester United, the soccer team have 33 million followers on Twitter, or at least based on Twitter’s calculus. “Can they afford to just decide to walk away from that and start on Bluesky? Maybe eventually they do, but that’s something I think about as the one thing that gives me a little bit of pause.”

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