Welsh First Minister joins Bluesky

Emily Price

Wales’ First Minister Eluned Morgan has joined the increasingly popular social media platform Bluesky as users leave X in their droves to sign up.

In the first post published to her new account on Thursday (November 14), Baroness Morgan wrote: “Shwmae 👋 Looking forward to chatting to you all on Bluesky. Give me a follow for all the latest from Wales – diolch!”

The Welsh Government has confirmed the account is legitimate, adding that the FM will still continue to post to X, formerly Twitter.

A spokesperson said: “We are always looking for new and effective ways to engage with the public on matters that affect them.”

Joined

Baroness Morgan is joined on the Bluesky by Minister for Children and Social Care, Dawn Bowden who has urged X users to “get over there”.

Former transport minister Lee Waters has also signed up.

He deactivated his X account earlier this year after he became a target for online abuse relating to the 20mph default speed limit.

Welsh Secretary Jo Stevens published her first post to Bluesky on Thursday too, congratulating the First Minister on 100 days in power.

Plaid MS Heledd Fychan has also signed up to the platform this week – a Plaid Cymru spokesperson said other MSs will soon follow.

There have been no sign ups to Bluesky by the Welsh Conservatives yet.

Several Tory sources told us some MSs are waiting to see whether lots of people move to the platform from X, owned by billionaire businessman Elon Musk.

Popular

Bluesky saw one million users sign up in the week following Donald Trump’s election win and is proving to be a popular destination for those who no longer wish to be on X.

It was hit by an outage yesterday amid a wave of sign ups with some users struggling to get their feeds and notifications to load.

The platform allows people to interact as much as they do on X, posting, replying, as well as messaging one another on a vertical user interface.

It was originally created as a research initiative in 2019 by then-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and officially launched as an independent platform in 2021.

The social media platform offers users the chance to more heavily moderate their experience compared to X.

This includes the ability to select the algorithm that powers your experience, helping create custom feeds, for example a feed for mutual followers, a feed for cat photos or one for your special interest.

Bluesky also allows users to have domains (website addresses) as their handles which could act as a verification tool for journalists, athletes and public figures who have a company’s website in their handle.

Toxic

Meanwhile, X appears to remove restrictions from the user experience, recently changing the block function to allow users to see the posts of public accounts who have blocked them.

In contrast, Bluesky has proudly boasted of its “anti-toxicity” features.

These include empowering users to detach an original post of theirs from someone else’s quote post, preventing unwanted interactions.

Bluesky said: “We aim to replace the conventional ‘master algorithm’, controlled by a single company, with an open and diverse ‘marketplace of algorithms.”

Both X and Musk have come under increased scrutiny since the businessman took over the site in late 2022.

The CEO used his platform – on which he has 205 million followers – to support Donald Trump during the 2024 US election campaign.

Musk has also engaged with misleading content and accounts known for spreading misinformation on a number of occasions.

In the wake of the Southport stabbings, where three young girls were stabbed to death, he posted a number of images linked to the anti-immigration protests and disorder in Britain.

X users have also reported an increase in “bots” making the site difficult to use, with comment sections often dominated by AI nonsense.

Several MPs have already made the move to Bluesky including safeguarding minister Jess Phillips, Liberal Democrat technology spokeswoman Layla Moran and Mother of the House Diane Abbott.