Many users of X (formerly Twitter) move to alternative Bluesky since Donald Trump was elected US president with the support of X owner Elon Musk. They strongly suspected that Musk was abusing his position as owner of one of the world's largest platforms to support the Republicans. X has long been under criticism for a high volume of bots, scammers, racism and disinformation. Those who leave the platform experience more autonomy on the sympathetic-looking alternative Bluesky. For instance, they have more influence over the algorithm that compiles their timeline and they can manage their data on their own servers.
But how long will this last? The fact that social media platforms are owned by private shareholders is a big risk. Social media is an important infrastructure for consuming news and communicating as a society. But it is not users, but shareholders who set the rules. Owners like Musk abuse their power to amplify or exclude certain voices. While Bluesky now seems like a fine alternative, nothing prevents owners from doing the same as Musk. Tech pioneer and director of Waag Futurelab Marleen Stikker put it clearly in Dutch newspaper NRC recently: ‘Again, a company determines how our digital village square works. Bluesky says it wants to be decentralised, but its 21 million users are all with one operator: Bluesky itself. With that, even on Bluesky, those users are at the mercy of the owners‘ whims.’
According to Bluesky CEO Jay Graber, users can ‘vote with their feet’. In other words, if they don't like it, they can switch. After all, the platform is open source and personal data is transferable, she told news channel CNBC. But without a good alternative (better conditions, a large network with many users), it is unlikely that individual users will leave. Moreover, that will have little impact on the platform's decisions. To safeguard public values, it is necessary to look at ownership and governance of the platform.
Alternative models
Users have long sought ways to recover the balance of power on digital platforms, for example through cooperatives. In a platform cooperative, users jointly own and govern. One example is The Drivers Cooperative in New York (recently expanded to Denver). This is an alternative to taxi app Uber, which gradually made drivers increasingly dependent on its algorithm. But so far, cooperative platforms are proving unable to really compete with platforms stuffed with venture capital. Moreover, the failed ‘Buy Twitter’ campaign from 2017 does not give much hope that users can collectively raise enough money to buy Bluesky. After all, Bluesky will need hefty investments in the near future to fund growth and professionalisation.
But there are more ways for users' interests to become more influential in a platform's governance model. In the Netherlands, for example, every company with more than 50 employees is required to appoint a works council. In a similar way, platform users could have a voice in the platform's policies. With an elected council of representatives, Bluesky users can share control. Moreover, more say also leads to more user loyalty. Such a co-representative council needs to be legally secured, though. Just look at the non-representative Meta Oversight Board that is supposed to monitor Facebook.
Another way to separate ownership and governance is via ‘steward-ownership’. The German company Bosch has been using this model for more than 100 years and it is also increasingly used in other countries to legally separate profit interest and good governance. The shareholder's maximum return is predetermined and the board can fully dedicate itself to the interests of the platform and its users. We think this would suit Bluesky well. After all, the platform was set up as a Benefit Corporation, a corporate form for social enterprises in the United States. So moving to steward-ownership would fit well with the company's social mission.
What does this mean for Bluesky?
Bluesky has an opportunity to show that digital innovation and public values can go hand in hand. That requires a different kind of ownership and governance. If Bluesky really wants to become the fair alternative to X, there is work to be done.
Note: Bunders and Arets have done individual and joint research on the rise of platform cooperatives.