Bluesky, “Social media as it should be,” was formally launched in February 2023 by former Twitter head Jack Dorsey. It is a direct competitor to X — Twitter’s new name after Elon Musk bought it in 2022.

His “free speech” approach alienated opinion leaders. They likely cheered as Bluesky decided to quadruple its moderation team at the end of November last year.

At the time, Nature gushed, “‘A place of joy’: why scientists are joining the rush to Bluesky. Researchers say the social-media platform — an alternative to X — offers more control over the content they see and the people they engage with.” Just before Christmas, the European journalists’ organization decided to leave X in January and join Bluesky.

Then reality began to sink in

If the big attraction is more control over thinking, innovation and creativity will suffer.

At Fortune, Sydney Lake tells us, “Bluesky is backfiring. Mark Cuban says the ‘lack of diversity of thought’ is actually pushing users back to X.”

She recounts billionaire investor Cuban’s experience as a frequent Bluesky user:

Between November 2024 and this May, Bluesky grew from about 10 million users to 30 million, according to a Pew Research Center analysis. Many news influencers—people who regularly post about current events on the platform—lean left politically, according to the analysis.

One such figure was billionaire Mark Cuban, who supported former Vice President Kamala Harris during her presidential run in 2024, although he didn’t give her a penny for her campaign, he said in October. Cuban became a regular Bluesky user, having posted nearly 2,000 times since November 2024. When he first joined the platform, he famously posted: “Hello Less Hateful World.”

But Cuban has changed his tune. In a series of posts this week, Cuban argued Bluesky has become too much of an echo chamber, and is sending more users back to X.

“Engagement went from great convos on many topics, to agree with me or you are a nazi fascist,” Cuban wrote. “We are forcing posts to X.” June 12, 2025

Over time, the hunt for “nazi fascists” will probably limit Bluesky’s growth even if it remains the Approved social medium.

X may be a safer venue for creative thinkers because it has over 500 million monthly active users worldwide. They can’t all want the same people shut down so finding a community to debate things with might be easier.