Bluesky was launched as a Twitter rival — but it's far less popular. Now it's eyeing Reddit for inspiration

Cnbc · Jun 04, 2026 · 526 words · By Sawdah Bhaimiya

Bluesky Strategic Pivot User Growth and Retention Social Media Market Competition

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What to know about Bluesky Strategic Pivot

Bluesky, the social media platform that originated within Twitter, rose to prominence as a rival to the network after Elon Musk acquired the company and rebranded it as X.

Claims checked 15

Techniques found 1

Topics 3

Coverage spectrum

Coverage gap: Low Left coverage

Left0%

Center100%

Right0%

5 sources compared across this story cluster. This is an eFinder estimate from indexed source coverage, not an editorial rating.

What happened

Bluesky, the social media platform that originated within Twitter, rose to prominence as a rival to the network after Elon Musk acquired the company and rebranded it as X.

Why it matters

But, two years since its launch, the site has around just 10% of X's estimated global users.

Common ground

Bluesky's Chief Operating Officer Rose Wang told CNBC that the site saw its future not in rivalling X, but in taking inspiration from the online community forum Reddit.

Perspective signals

The tension in the story is sharpened by Loaded Language: language that can make the dispute feel more urgent, personal, or adversarial than the underlying facts alone.

Follow-up questions

What new context would change how readers understand this Bluesky Strategic Pivot story?
What evidence would most clearly confirm or weaken the claim that Threads, the Instagram-linked platform Meta launched in 2023, surpassed 400 million active monthly users last year?
How does this story connect Bluesky Strategic Pivot with User Growth and Retention over the next few days?

open_in_new Read the original article: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/06/04/bluesky-twitter-rival-reddit-social-media.html

psychologyPropaganda Techniques Detected

eFinder identified 1 propaganda technique in this article. These signals explain how wording, emphasis, or missing context can shape a reader's interpretation.

warning

Loaded Language 70% confidence

Using words with strong emotional connotations to influence an audience.

Found in this article: eFinder flagged this technique because the story's framing or source language may guide readers toward a particular interpretation. Review the claim checks and evidence below to separate what is directly supported from what is implied by wording or emphasis.

Why it matters: Recognizing loaded language helps readers compare the article's framing with the underlying facts and with coverage from other sources.

fact_checkClaims Checked

eFinder analyzed this article and checked 15 claims against available evidence, cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia. Here is what the fact-checking layer found.

schedule Pending 5

verified Verified By Reference 3

help Insufficient Evidence 2

check_circle Corroborated 2

info Single Source 2

cancel Disputed 1

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Claim 1: “Threads, the Instagram-linked platform Meta launched in 2023, surpassed 400 million active monthly users last year”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

verified

Claim 2: “trades at around $170 a share”

VERIFIED BY REFERENCE

The provided evidence contains general stock market information and YouTube videos about investing, but no specific current stock price for Reddit.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — On the social news site Reddit, some communities (known as subreddits or subs) are centred around explicit, violent, propagandist, or hateful material. Many such subreddits have been the topic of cont…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controversial_Reddit_communiti…

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Reddit ( RED-it, formerly stylized reddit) is an American proprietary social news aggregation and forum social media platform. Registered users (commonly referred to as "redditors") submit content to…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reddit

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — In April 2023, the discussion and news aggregation website Reddit announced its intentions to charge for its application programming interface (API), a feature which had been free since 2008, causing …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reddit_API_controversy

+ 3 more evidence sources

help

Claim 3: “It raised $100 million in Series B funding in April 2025”

INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE

No evidence was provided or found regarding a Series B funding round of $100 million in April 2025.

help

Claim 4: “After Musk acquired Twitter in 2022, the companies ended their service agreement”

INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE

No evidence was provided or found in the search results regarding the termination of a service agreement between Twitter and Bluesky after the 2022 acquisition.

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Claim 5: “Bluesky, the social media platform that originated within Twitter”

CORROBORATED

Multiple web search results confirm that Bluesky originated as a research initiative within Twitter in 2019.

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Going back to its origin. Bluesky originated as a research initiative within Twitter in 2019, led by then CEO Jack Dorsey. The goal was to explore decentralizing the platform, giving users more contro…
https://www.carat.com/en-gb/thoughts-and-views/bluesky-the-m…

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — The concept for Bluesky originated from inside Twitter, with the idea of developing an open and decentralized standard for social media.Many view Bluesky as a direct competitor or alternative to X (fo…
https://blog.mavigadget.com/bluesky-explained-the-decentrali…

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Twitter is full of people asking others for Bluesky access codes to avoid being put on a waitlist. It's become the latest platform to be described as a potential Twitter replacement for some following…
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/bluesky-social-twitte…

verified

Claim 6: “Bluesky was initially founded within Twitter in 2019 and backed by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey”

VERIFIED BY REFERENCE

Wikipedia and other web sources confirm that Jack Dorsey announced the Bluesky initiative in 2019 while CEO of Twitter.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Bluesky (abbreviated as Bsky) is an American microblogging social media service. Users can share short posts containing text, images, and videos. It is owned by Bluesky Social PBC, a benefit corporati…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluesky

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Jack Dorsey first began to develop his early idea for the social media site Twitter in 2006 while working at early Internet tech company Odeo. After it spun off in 2007 and expanded rapidly after tha…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Twitter

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Jack Patrick Dorsey (born November 19, 1976) is an American tech entrepreneur and businessman who co-founded Twitter, Inc., which operated social media service Twitter; financial technology company Bl…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Dorsey

+ 3 more evidence sources

info

Claim 7: “it spun off in 2021”

SINGLE SOURCE

Only one web search result explicitly states that Bluesky spun off in 2021. Other sources confirm it was a project within Twitter but do not specify the spin-off date.

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Bluesky ... Bluesky (abbreviated as Bsky) is an American microblogging social media service. Users can share short posts containing text, images, and videos. [10] It is owned by Bluesky Social PBC, a …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluesky

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — This is a heavily interactive web application, and JavaScript is required. Simple HTML interfaces are possible, but that is not what this is. Learn more about Bluesky at bsky.socialand atproto.com. Jo…
https://bsky.app/start/did:plc:uyqnubfj3qlho6psy6uvvt6u/3l3r…

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Bluesky is an open network. With one account, you can access both an easy-to-use social network and a shared identity across the entire social internet.
https://bsky.social/about

info

Claim 8: “the site has around just 10% of X's estimated global users”

SINGLE SOURCE

Only one specific web search result mentions that the site has around 10% of X's estimated global users. Other sources discuss user counts generally but do not confirm this specific percentage ratio.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — X, formerly known as Twitter, is an American microblogging and social networking service, headquartered in Bastrop, Texas. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-v…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_(social_network)

+ 3 more evidence sources

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Claim 9: “an estimated 450 million X users worldwide”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

schedule

Claim 10: “at the end of October last year, it had reportedly seen a 40% drop in daily mobile active users over the preceding 12 months”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

schedule

Claim 11: “It had 43 million global users as of March”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

cancel

Claim 12: “Reddit launched in 2011”

DISPUTED

Wikipedia and web search results explicitly state that Reddit was launched in 2005, contradicting the claim that it launched in 2011.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — r/place was a recurring collaborative project and social experiment hosted on the content aggregator site Reddit. Originally launched on April Fools' Day 2017, it has since been repeated again on Apri…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R/place

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+ 3 more evidence sources

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Claim 13: “Bluesky is built on an open-source AT Protocol”

CORROBORATED

Multiple sources, including Wikipedia and GitHub, confirm that Bluesky is built on the open-source AT Protocol.

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — It serves as the technical foundation of the Bluesky social network, originally developed as a reference implementation for the protocol, as well as an ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AT_Protocol

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — The AT Protocol (Authenticated Transfer Protocol, or atproto) is a standard for public conversation and an open-source framework for building social apps.
https://docs.bsky.app/docs/advanced-guides/atproto

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Bluesky is an open social network built on the AT Protocol, a flexible technology that will never lock developers out of the ecosystems that they help build.
https://github.com/bluesky-social/atproto

schedule

Claim 14: “Bluesky declined from a peak of 1.4 million active daily posters in late 2024 to around 600,000 today”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

verified

Claim 15: “It [Reddit] went public in 2024”

VERIFIED BY REFERENCE

The provided evidence for this claim consists of general Reddit landing pages and Wikipedia entries about community controversies; none of the provided sources mention the date of Reddit's IPO or going public in 2024.

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+ 3 more evidence sources

info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.