Platforms

Brazil, Bluesky & the Fediverse

Michael Foster

04 Sep 2024 • 6 min read

It’s been a week for migration. That’s the big story.

Some people in the Fediverse have been concerned that the news is all going Bluesky’s way. This blog is here to say: step back from the clone wars, redefine the arena, build alliances and it’s all good.

Migration stories

Winding back to November and December 2022, what a crazy time that was for Mastodon. The Elon Musk takeover prompted a flight of people from Twitter - including me. Many found a new home at Mastodon. The press took attention. Servers struggled with the load. New accounts could acquire many thousands of followers. Of the many alternatives which sprung up to replace Twitter, Mastodon was winning the clone wars.

Fast forward to the summer of 2024 and we’re in a different world. We’ve just seen two country based waves where Mastodon barely featured.

First, when online misinformation fueled right wing riots, Musk supported civil war in the UK. That didn’t go down well. Everyone has their Musk red line. For me it was the tweet about the attack on Paul Pelosi. For many in the UK, it was this. A bunch of charities, organisations and journalists moved to Threads. And a core of London based intelligentsia moved to Bluesky. Moved as in, started posted there sometimes. Alastair Campbell was a big catch. There were discussions about Bluesky on political podcasts. Some FT journalists, scared off by legal uncertainties on Mastodon back in 2022, began to find a new home. As did two chefs who epitomise left-leaning London: Nigella Lawson and Nigel Slater. This was a big signal for me.

I also enjoyed Alan Rusbridger’s call for a Twitter migration day (he’s the ex-editor of the Guardian, and a member of the Facebook Oversight Board).

"Has the time have come for a mass X-odus and shall we name the date?"

That was the sort of thing we aspired to back at the start of Newsmast. Will it happen? Are they sticking? Probably not, and possibly not. Rusbridger’s point is key: unless everyone moves, it’s hard to make a move stick. That means the posters and the lurkers. Back in the early days of Newsmast, we believed that posters would bring their followers with them. That’s not turned out to be a working model for migration. Interestingly, the UK government didn’t participate in all this. In fact they went as far to declare that they’d stick to Twitter, to get their message across.

Next stop, Brazil. Musk again takes on a country and this time the government pushes back. X is banned, in a pretty bulletproof way. And that creates the conditions for a perfect migration. Enter Bluesky and one of the biggest migration waves since 2022. Two million new users in three days - out of the 20 million Brazilian users on X. Here’s a great piece from Garbage Day on why Bluesky is a good match for many Brazilians as a Twitter replacement:

“Threads just doesn’t really fit into how Brazilian internet culture works. Most of Brazilian social media is still very much influenced by Orkut [a Myspace-like social network that dominated the internet in Brazil in the 2000s]…And Twitter’s hashtag, chronological feed, and open search provided the same ability to create endless pockets of conversation or “zoeira” or “zuera,” the term Brazilians sometimes use for the meme-filled chaos that used to happen on X. The word comes from the verb “zoar,” which means to joke or mock or fool around. And this is why many algorithmic platforms, like TikTok, tend to be used less in Brazil. You just can’t riff as well.”

So that’s the narrative. Let’s dive into what we can take from it.

Something to celebrate

We can start by openly acknowledging that it’s incredible.Two million people just left Twitter and Bluesky absorbed them overnight with barely a glitch. And for migrations to stick, you want them to happen in one place. Let’s hope they do.

Second, this is something to celebrate. We need to put people before protocols, and recognise that having healthy, innovative, independent platforms is a good thing. Bluesky has a lively and dynamic leadership team delivering exciting innovations at a rapid pace. Things like custom feeds, layered moderation, starter packs, anti-toxicity tools. Not all work as planned - but they help create micro-communities on the platform. Starter packs in particular have been a surprise - not used to welcome people as planned, but to help with discovery and followings. Click on a starter pack, follow all and not only do you get a bunch of interesting people in your feed - you pick up some interesting follow backs. Land in a starter pack and you’ll start picking up new followers every day. Cue Mike McCue (Flipboard CEO) on Threads:

“Jay and the team are super smart and charting the future of social media.”

From clone wars to protocol wars? We’re better than that

Third, the lack of uptick for Mastodon marks the end of Fediverse participation in the Twitter clone wars. And that’s a good thing. It means we can move on to something bigger and better. Fediverse 1.0 was all about building Fediverse clones of walled garden social media. With the way the Fediverse is set up and resourced, we just can’t be competitive at this (disclaimer: we tried at Newsmast and it’s really, really tough). Fediverse 1.0 got things going, and attracted a core of people, which is great, but it’s not a pathway to massive growth.

Enter Fediverse 2.0, which is well underway - and much more exciting. That’s the Fediverse as a hub connecting multiple platforms: Wordpress, Flipboard, Ghost - and of course Threads. What Johannes Ernst calls a network of networks. Which raises some interesting questions about platforms and protocols, and what it means to be a hub. Threads has limited one way Federation, Bluesky has limited two way federation via the bridge. So Bluesky is already very much part of the wider Fediverse - giving us another reason to celebrate the Brazilian migration. There’s even a technical route emerging to federation with Nostr - if we can get around the MAGA crew running it and find a way to hook up directly with Rabble and Nos.social.

How far can Fediverse 2.0 take us? Evan Prodromou asked the question in a recent poll: should YouTube federate? Which begs the question: if yes, what is federation all about?

For Fediverse 2.0 to be a meaningful hub, pulling different platforms and protocols together, we can’t just be providing plumbing for Meta and Google. Going beyond a debate about people vs protocols, we need to add in a third “p” that’s definitely not plumbing: politics. The Fediverse is nothing if not political - a place for people to join together and build communities outside corporate controlled walled gardens.

“We can have a different web, if we want it.” (Molly White)

I keep coming back to this piece, it’s so powerful. Adding in the political dimension also helps us get back to what matters in the Brazilian migration to Bluesky. It’s not just people migrating - it’s deeply political. Which is a good thing. So we need to support, celebrate and connect to Bluesky as a lively, fast growing part of the political Fediverse. And yes, the Fediverse word is here to stay:

“I think over time the term ‘fediverse’ will come to include bluesky, for the simple reason that it makes everyone mad.’ (Laurens Hof on Bluesky)

Putting the politics into Fediverse 2.0 helps answer Evan’s question too: should YouTube federate? Giants like Threads and YouTube only help us if their huge audience gives impetus to individuals and organisations joining the independent, open, political Fediverse. That’s a much more qualified welcome than the one for Bluesky - but it’s still a welcome, not a block.

Towards Fediverse 3.0

That’s already a lot to take away from a few million Brazilians moving to Bluesky one weekend. There’s more.

Fediverse 2.0 is a big step on from 1.0 and the clone wars. But it’s just a beginning. For the Fediverse to work as a hub embracing people, politics and multiple protocols, we need to bring communities together across platforms and protocols, and support them in driving change.

The Black Sky feed on Bluesky is remarkable - how can we extend this across the Fediverse, Nostr and Threads? Journalism Threads is becoming a gathering point - how can we connect this to the journalists on Mastodon and in the Bluesky news feed? When a country like the UK turns against X, how can we connect people on different platforms? And what new apps and technologies can we bring to boost all this? Flipboard as a Fediverse app, or sub.club as the new Patreon? How can the Harris for President Group and fundraising campaigns act as models for political organising across platforms? There's lots to work on, and we aim to do our bit with Newsmast, Channel.org and Patchwork.

The Fediverse is already a great hub for technology. By moving on from the clone wars, embracing multiple protocols and injecting a big dose of politics, we can build Fediverse 3.0: