Bluesky’s Vision: Rebuilding Social Media

As dominant social platforms like X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook increasingly reflect the politics and personalities of their billionaire owners, one upstart platform is taking a radically different path. Bluesky, led by CEO Jay Graber, aims to decentralize control over social media—and empower users instead.

In a deeply reported profile for The New Yorker, Kyle Chayka explores how Bluesky, born as an internal Twitter initiative under Jack Dorsey, has grown into a 30-million-user network and the largest decentralized social platform in operation today.

A Refuge from the Tech Elite

Graber, a former blockchain engineer and media activist, emerged as Bluesky’s leader in 2021, after showing initiative in a disorganized early working group. Under her leadership, Bluesky has become a haven for users fleeing Elon Musk’s vision of X, drawing liberals, creatives, marginalized communities, and those disillusioned with algorithmic manipulation.

The platform evokes early Twitter’s charm—with real-time feeds, simple design, and no ads—while quietly offering a radically different structure under the hood.

Built on Protocol, Not Platform

Bluesky’s key innovation is its Authenticated Transfer (AT) Protocol, which operates much like email's SMTP. It allows users to own their identities and data, choose or build custom algorithms, and even migrate to other apps running on the same protocol. The idea: if users don’t like the platform, they can take their communities elsewhere.

This architectural choice reflects Graber’s anti-authoritarian philosophy. In a landscape dominated by personalities like Musk and Zuckerberg, she has positioned Bluesky as a counterweight to centralized, personality-driven networks.

“Do we want to live in a world ruled by self-styled tech monarchs?” she asks in the piece.

A Social Space That Feels Different—By Design

While Bluesky resembles Twitter on the surface, its culture is distinct. Moderation is decentralized. Users can apply filtering tools of their own choosing—ranging from verified identity tags to niche satire labels. The “My Feeds” tab lets users select from community-created algorithmic feeds, from science content to mushroom photos.

Graber sees the network as a modular, customizable “hotel”, with users able to explore or build their own “rooms” and communities. One of the most popular feeds, Blacksky, serves over 300,000 users with tools to flag and block racism and misogynoir.

The Power—and Pitfalls—of Decentralization

Despite its decentralized ambitions, Bluesky still runs most user accounts on its own servers, creating cost pressures and questions about monetization. Graber has rejected traditional ad models and AI licensing. Instead, Bluesky is exploring revenue from custom domain hosting, subscriptions, and its marketplace of user-generated tools.

Former supporters, including Jack Dorsey (who funded Bluesky’s initial development), have criticized the platform for becoming “too centralized.” Dorsey left the board in 2024. But others see Bluesky’s hybrid structure as a necessary bridge to widespread adoption of decentralized tech.

What Success Looks Like

For Graber, success isn’t just growing Bluesky. It’s proving the viability of an open protocol future—one where anyone can build on shared infrastructure without being subject to the whims of a single company or CEO.

“If people migrate elsewhere on the protocol tomorrow, it only proves the vision works,” she says.

Indeed, that vision is already unfolding. New apps like Flashes and PinkSea have launched using the AT Protocol, suggesting a budding ecosystem far beyond Bluesky itself.

Final Thoughts

The New Yorker’s portrait of Jay Graber paints her as a quiet revolutionary—a fantasy-loving former Neopets user turned protocol engineer who’s challenging Silicon Valley’s most entrenched power structures. In an era defined by surveillance, algorithmic control, and political influence, Bluesky offers something rare: a social network designed to eventually survive its founders.

“The company is a future adversary,” says one of Bluesky’s guiding internal mottos.

It’s a bet that users, not billionaires, should control the future of online conversation—and one that’s steadily gaining traction.