Taylor Swift Fans Are Leaving X for Bluesky After Trump’s Election

Following the US presidential election, Swifties, the identify for Taylor Swift’s followers, are fleeing X for Bluesky. X’s proprietor, billionaire Elon Musk, was certainly one of Donald Trump’s biggest backers, funneling over $100 million into the Trump-supporting America PAC; stumping for the candidate on the campaign trail; and boosting Trump’s messaging on X. Musk additionally helped Trump faucet right into a distinctly right-wing male audience. Swifties, who’ve constructed a strong group on the platform previously generally known as Twitter, took discover. By Thursday, lower than 48 hours after Trump received the presidency, they have been beginning to flock from the platform for good.

“I really like the thought of constructing a brand new group right here and would love to not must assist Elon in any method,” says Justin, who goes by @justin-the-baron.swifties.social on Bluesky and requested to make use of solely his first identify for concern of harassment. “Elon is in fact a giant Trump supporter, which does not align with Taylor’s values or the values of Swifties.”

Although there are Swifties on all sides of the political spectrum, the group prides itself on being a optimistic and accepting house. After Kamala Harris was introduced because the Democratic nominee for president, Swifties began to mobilize to support her. In September, Swift herself endorsed Harris. In an Instagram post asserting her assist, Swift cited AI-generated images of herself and her fans that had been utilized by Trump to indicate she’d endorsed him.

Following the endorsement, Musk posted, “Positive Taylor … you win … I provides you with a baby and guard your cats with my life.” Musk, who has repeatedly shared issues about declining delivery charges, has no less than 11 youngsters with no less than three girls. According to The New York Times, he additionally provided his sperm to Nicole Shanahan, the previous working mate for unbiased candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (She declined.)

Irene Kim, an organizer with Swifties for Kamala, says that the outpouring of misogyny following the election pushed her and plenty of different Swift followers to desert X and search refuge on Bluesky. Although analysis has discovered that hate speech and disinformation increased after Musk took over the platform, the election of Trump appears to have supercharged it. A report from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue discovered that within the 24 hours following Trump’s electoral victory, phrases like “Your physique, my alternative,” parroting the election night rhetoric of white supremacist Nick Fuentes, rose 4,600 % on X.

“I feel that is the type of rhetoric we need to get away from,” Kim says. She additionally notes that X’s recent update to the “block” function, which permits individuals to see the profile and posts of customers which have blocked them, has contributed to a extra unfavorable expertise on the platform. “Twitter has undoubtedly grow to be such a hellscape,” Kim says.