BlueSky And Threads are emerging as two of the most promising alternatives to what was once the dominant text-based social networking platform: Twitter (now known as X). Both services, however, represent very different visions of the future of online interactions. While Threads aims for a centralized and Meta-controlled model, BlueSky takes a decentralized and democratic approach, giving users more freedom in managing content. This dichotomy reflects not only different commercial strategies, but also a deeper change in the very concept of “social networks”. Let’s then analyze how these two models could redefine the digital landscape.
What is Threads: the characteristics
Threadscreated by Meta (the same company that develops Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp), immediately showed an approach strongly influenced by centralized management. The company says it wants to foster a “public conversation,” but has implemented policies that limit certain types of content. An example is the restrictions imposed on political or social topicsparticularly during election periods. In fact, users were forced to manually change their account settings to view posts related to this type of topic.
Not to mention the content moderationwhich has sparked quite a bit of controversy: there have been episodes in which research on important topics, such as that of COVID-19 or that of journalist Austin Tice (who disappeared in Syria in 2012), were blocked due to incorrect interpretations by the algorithm, according to which this type of topic “could be associated with the sale of drugs”. Even seemingly innocuous terms – including “cracker” – were penalized, forcing Meta to publicly apologize for what happened and, clearly, to correct these errors promptly.
How BlueSky works
On the other hand, BlueSky takes a completely different approach inspired by open source, focusing on information transparency and user autonomy. Founded by Jay Graberthe platform stands out for its inclusive vision, where users have more control over what they see and how content is moderated. In addition to basic moderation, BlueSky allows users to create their own moderation services, adapting the experience to your needs. This model reflects a philosophy that favors collective participation in platform governance, rather than imposing top-down decisions. To go into more detail, the default feed it has a type setting reverse chronologicalshowing posts in order of publication. Users can also add custom feeds on specific themes, such as “cat photos” or “trending news,” making thehighly configurable experience.
Another relevant aspect is the relationship with journalistic content. While Meta has explicitly stated that it does not want to incentivize news sharing on Threads, BlueSky has tried to actively promote link disseminationachieving significant results in terms of traffic to publishers. This connects to a broader vision of the platform as a tool to encourage the circulation of information, a an objective that recalls the historical role played by Twitter in the news ecosystem.
The differences between the two platforms are also reflected in the economic management. Threads is directly connected to Meta’s massive advertising infrastructure, a system that has generated much criticism for its invasiveness. Although Threads does not currently feature advertisements, there are signs that these may soon debut on this Meta social network too, following the consolidated model present on other platforms, Facebook and Instagram first and foremost. BlueSky, however, is exploring alternative monetization models. It has already started selling custom domains and plans a subscription service that will offer additional features, while maintaining a certain distance from traditional advertising.
This diversity is further highlighted by the technological structure of the two platforms. BlueSky is based on a decentralized open source model, which allows developers to create third-party apps and users to deeply customize the experience. Threads, on the other hand, is heavily integrated into Meta’s closed ecosystem, limiting the possibilities for external intervention.
The challenges of BlueSky and Threads
Despite the differences, both platforms face significant challenges. Threads benefits from the immense resources of Meta, which can invest billions and billions of dollars to guarantee its growth, but must deal with the negative perception that too invasive control has on users. BlueSky, on the other hand, despite counting on a pool of passionate users attracted by its democratic platform management model, has to deal with the fierce competition of a technological giant, which Meta actually is.
However, if BlueSky manages to maintain its independence and expand its user base, it could represent a significant turning point in the world of social networks and, more generally, online information.
