BlueSky: Like X but without Elon
Social media-loving lawyers have been moving en masse this week from X to BlueSky, with one chambers saying Elon Musk’s site “contradicts” its values.
BlueSky is a social app that only went live to the public earlier this year but has reported a huge spike in new users from the UK this week, with ‘legal Twitter’ moving in large numbers – some while retaining their X accounts but others ditching them altogether.
Legal Futures joined on Monday but will still be on X to distribute our content.
Launched by Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey (although he is no longer involved), Bluesky looks and works like Twitter – but it is designed to not be controlled by a single company and has a different, more open approach to moderation. It is built on the AT Protocol, which means accounts are portable to other apps.
Bluesky, the company, is a public benefit corporation, a US structure for for-profit companies that generate social and public good, and look to operate in a responsible and sustainable manner.
However, as a newcomer, it is still dwarfed by X in terms of users – as of May, it had six million, against X’s 368m.
One Pump Court Chambers announced it was quitting X for BlueSky yesterday. While acknowledging that X has played “a significant role in our online presence and community building”, it said recent changes – particularly under Elon Musk’s leadership – “no longer resonate with [our] core principles”.
It explained: “We believe in fostering a space for constructive dialogue, factual information and, respectful discourse. Unfortunately, the current trajectory of the platform contradicts these values.”
The set highlighted the “amplification of misinformation and hate speech” on X, as well as the “negative online culture” it increasingly fostered.
Leading housing lawyer Giles Peaker, a partner at Anthony Gold and founder of the Nearly Legal website, has also swapped being active on X – where @NearlyLegal account has 31,000 followers – for BlueSky (while retaining the X account to post website content and also to stop anyone taking over the name).
He said it was “no longer possible to continue [on X] without feeling like an under siege resistance fighter, trying to preserve humour, conversation, raising matters of personal and public interest, and frankly keeping self-respect, in the face of what has become a brittle, facile, deceitful, stupidly anger-driven culture that won’t leave you alone”.
He said this had been happening for several years but had got “rapidly worse” under Elon Musk “and his kindergarten version of ‘freedom of speech’”.
Mr Peaker said he had decided not to “stay and fight” because X’s income depended on users and views and “I am damned if I am going to play any part in enabling him in that way, even if paying nothing myself. His X will go broke, but let it be sooner rather than later”.
He added that Twitter as was had been “marvellous”, not only by building up a housing law community but also putting him in contact with journalists, politicians, campaigners and others – indeed, Mr Peaker said the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 would not have happened without the connections made on Twitter.
BlueSky, he said, reminded him of pre 2016 twitter – “funny and with interesting people to discover and talk to”.
George Peretz KC was another lawyer who has decided against staying and fighting. He wrote on BlueSky yesterday: “Though I see the force of ‘take them on on their own turf’ it’s also critical to break the coordination problem that underpins X’s position. Debating on X strengthens X.”
By contrast, the Secret Barrister – while having a BlueSky account too – said they would be staying on X.
They wrote: “I do not blame anyone leaving this site, given what it has become. But as long as there are charlatans lying about the law and undermining our justice system, I’ll be here, banging my tiny lawsplaining drum, churning out Legal Live Tweets and laying some truth on yo sorry asses.”
They currently have 10,000 BlueSky followers, compared to 527,000 on X.
Another anonymous account, Judge WhoHe, described as an English lawyer and judge, said they were leaving X for the “cleaner air” of BlueSky.
“If X was invented today in its current form, I wouldn’t even consider lending it my patronage. The amount of good faith engagement is vanishingly rare, and the algorithm pumps conflict and despair.”
Gordon Exall, a barrister whose well-known Civil Litigation Brief website has nearly 19,000 X followers, has left X for BlueSky too, saying: “As matters stand ‘X’ is not a place where it is possible for me to feel comfortable being associated with, either professionally or personally.”
Crimegirl, a popular anonymous barrister’s account, has done the same, writing: “I am not just ‘Crime Girl’ but have other responsibilities that include standing against those who propagate hate.
“Elon Musk fanned the flames that cause friends and colleagues in immigration to fear for their lives. They have been unable to go into their offices. Buildings were set alight with refugee families inside. This is abhorrent in a free and peaceful democracy.”
Paralegal Joe Hodson posted yesterday on BlueSky: “Getting inundated with twitter notifications: ‘Ah crap, just another pornbot/cryptobot following me’. Getting inundated with Bluesky notifications: ‘Oh cool, another King’s Counsel following me!’”
A good way to find ‘legal BlueSky’ is to look at who Legal Futures is following, which we will be adding to as time goes on. Much of this is derived from the ‘starter packs’ created by Sean Jones KC.
Leave a Comment