X’s active users are declining. According to data from Similarweb, daily active users in the United States have fallen by about a fifth over a 16-month period. The trend is more aggressive in the United Kingdom, where active users have dropped from 8 million to 5.6 million over the past year. 

This user exodus is largely attributed to dissatisfaction with the platform’s direction under Elon Musk’s ownership. Many users, particularly in Britain, have either left the platform entirely or reduced their activity. A Financial Times report notes that the decline was especially noticeable since Musk began posting controversial content, such as statements about civil war being “inevitable” during summer riots.

As users leave X, they are migrating to alternative platforms. Meta’s Threads and Bluesky have emerged as popular choices. Threads currently has about 1.4 million daily active users in the UK, while Bluesky has just over 100,000. Bluesky is growing rapidly and becoming the preferred platform for progressives, including media professionals, academics, and policy experts.

Musk once said that he wanted to buy X, which was then called Twitter, because he wanted to “help humanity” and prevent it from becoming a “free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences!”

He prophesied (or did he just preempt his plans?) that “that social media will splinter into far right wing and far left wing echo chambers that generate more hate and divide our society.” Well, two short years later and here he is insisting civil war is inevitable, boosting Donald Trump, threatening Taylor Swift, and picking fights with a “tyrannical dictator masquerading as a judge” he apparently can’t win.

While this is all happening (well, this and many more things related to Musk), X is also implementing controversial changes to its blocking functionality. The platform is removing the block option from posts, though users can still block others from profiles. 

This modification means blocked users can still view public posts, effectively diluting the blocking feature’s impact. The move has sparked concerns about user safety and potential violations of app store requirements, which mandate effective blocking options.

Musk justifies these changes by arguing that blocking, particularly through block lists, unfairly restricts post reach. However, critics worry this could exacerbate issues for users who rely on blocking to avoid harassment and abuse.

Sounds like a free-for-all hellscape.

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