Bluesky tops app charts and sees 'all-time-highs' after Brazil bans X | TechCrunch
A Brazilian court’s decision to ban X (formerly Twitter) seems to be benefiting its rivals, especially Bluesky.
The microblogging platform announced late Friday that it was seeing “all-time-highs for activity” with 500,000 new users joining in the previous two days. It’s also number one on the free iPhone app chart in Brazil today, ranking just ahead of Meta’s Threads at number two.
Noting the rankings, Bluesky CEO Jay Graber wrote, “good job Brazil, you made the right choice.”
That growth is particularly impressive for a platform that only fully opened to the public in February and winkingly acknowledged its small size (especially compared to rivals X and Threads) by describing itself as “the short king of social apps.” The company says it had more than 6 million users as of May 2024.
Bluesky was first announced in 2019 as a Twitter-backed initiative to build an open, decentralized social protocol. It has since become an independent public benefit corporation, with Twitter founder Jack Dorsey leaving the board earlier this year.
Elon Musk’s X, meanwhile, has been engaged in an escalating legal fight with Brazil’s Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes over the company’s refusal to block certain accounts as part of a broader crackdown on what Moraes said is election disinformation.
X said earlier this month that it would shut down operations in Brazil, with Moraes then warning the company that it would be banned if it did not name a legal representative in the country. He followed through on Friday, and also threatened fines against users who try to circumvent the ban by using a VPN.
As the ban approached, Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva seemingly bid farewell to his X followers by linking to his other social media accounts — starting with Bluesky.
In the latest twist in Bolt’s aggressive fundraising efforts, the fintech company’s CEO appears to have made a veiled threat of legal action against Silverbear Capital, the investment bank whose…
A Brazilian court’s decision to ban X (formerly Twitter) seems to be benefiting its rivals, especially Bluesky. The microblogging platform announced late Friday that it was seeing “all-time-highs for activity”…
OpenAI could reportedly increase its valuation to $100 billion. Nvidia and Apple are apparently in talks to contribute to the company’s next fundraising round, and Thrive Capital would lead the…
Amazon announced Friday evening that it has hired Covariant’s founders — Pieter Abbeel, Peter Chen, and Rocky Duan — along with “about a quarter” of the startup’s employees. It’s also…
The rise of AI has consumed the arts, just as it has Silicon Valley. Everyone is pondering: Will AI replace me?
Organizations are people and people are messy, and you have to look beyond the tech to the end goal: implementing new software that could transform the business.
Most of the biggest South Korean tech startups intend to pursue public offerings in either South Korea or the United States as part of their exit strategy.
A top court in Brazil ordered an immediate, country-wide suspension of the X platform on Friday after a months-long legal battle with Elon Musk’s social media company over content moderation,…
OpenAI is in talks to raise a new round of funding at an eye-popping $100 billion-plus valuation, sources told The Wall Street Journal this week. It turns out investors have…
SB 1047 has drawn the ire of Silicon Valley players large and small, including venture capitalists, big tech trade groups, researchers and startup founders.
Stock-trading startup Public has acquired the brokerage accounts of Carta’s secondaries business, TechCrunch has confirmed.
Redfin is responding to a new startup that is hoping to upend the way people search for and buy homes by offering a flat-fee service. On August 29, TechCrunch reported…
Apple moved to terminate the Appstun developer account after multiple rejections of its app that Apple says violates its App Store guidelines.
By Rotation has a partnership with Airbnb to let those who’ve booked an Airbnb receive a complimentary outfit rental.
LAION, the German research org that created the data used to train Stable Diffusion, among other generative AI models, has released a new dataset that it claims has been “thoroughly…
The North Korean hackers’ attack started by tricking a victim into visiting a web domain under the hackers’ control.
Some stories emerge and die in a matter of days. Others require us to stay tuned for more, and this week brought us several of these.
Google is gearing up for the upcoming U.S. presidential election by rolling out safeguards for more of its generative AI products. Although the company already previously announced that it would…
Across the world, regulators have ramped up their efforts to try and increase the safety of kids on the internet. Major social networks are facing scrutiny, and as a countermeasure,…
Jam & Tea Studios is the latest gaming startup implementing generative AI to transform the way players interact with non-playable characters (NPCs) in video games. Traditionally, video game NPCs are…
Traditionally seen as private financial entities, family offices are key players in the supply of venture capital, using startup investments as a way to diversify their portfolios and engage with…
TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 in San Francisco is just two months away, and we’re still looking for enthusiastic and driven volunteers to assist our events team. Don’t miss this opportunity to…
Don’t miss out! Today is the last day to apply and scale your Series A to B startup at a significantly reduced exhibit cost with the ScaleUp Startup Exhibitor Package.…
Indian tech and media startup VerSe, which operates popular news aggregator Dailyhunt, is worth about 42% below its last private valuation, according to estimates by its investor 360 One. The…
After seeing double-digit growth in South Korea, Uber Technologies has announced a strategic plan to double down in the country — directly challenging market leader Kakao Mobility, the ride-hailing unit…
TikTok is introducing a new “Manage Topics” feature that will give you more control over what you see on your For You feed, the company announced on Friday. The new…
Given everything you’ve already heard about AI, you may not be surprised to learn that Google is among other outfits beginning to use sound signals to predict early signs of…
Nvidia and Apple are reportedly in talks to contribute to OpenAI’s next fundraising round — a round that could value the ChatGPT maker at $100 billion. Per its sources, The…
