It’s time to exit

Hayhoe, a scientist, conducted experiments on her account, repeating previous posts and documenting her reactions. “The number of troll comments on the same post has increased by an order of magnitude,” she says.

“The abuse I put up with in order to reach fewer people was remarkable,” she said.

exchange

The NGOs involved in the Leave campaign are not necessarily looking for new social platforms to replace X, explained Urgewald communications director Moritz Schröder Telle.

“In addition to all the ethical reasons we pulled back, we felt that X was no longer the right channel for our target audience,” he said.

“We learned that a more focused approach on Instagram and LinkedIn allows us to connect more closely with our key audiences.”

Mohr agrees. Bioland primarily migrated content to LinkedIn. “There are controversial opinions on many topics, and correspondingly more or less heated debates. However, the basis of the debate is completely different and is based on mutual respect and democratic values.”

He attributes this to the fact that users must use their real names and cannot hide behind fake profiles. The organization has the most reach on Instagram, he says.

like a rocket

“The culture of discussion is much more civilized than Musk’s Platform X, which has few moderators, which is why I have no regrets about leaving,” he says.

Some are considering or trying alternatives like Threads and Mastodon, both of which have seen significant growth since Musk acquired Twitter.

However, Hayhoe reported that his reach on Threads decreased in late summer, and he suspects algorithm changes are once again to blame. “There’s not as much trolling on the thread, but you can reach a fraction of the people with the same amount of effort,” she said.

Introducing Bluesky, a relative newcomer. The platform started as a research project at Twitter, but the partnership was severed when Musk acquired the platform in 2022.

When Bluesky launched to the public in February 2024, it had 3 million users, which rose to nearly 14 million on the day U.S. voters went to the polls. Since then, that base has skyrocketed, reaching 25 million people by early December.

advantage

Many environmental NGOs, activist groups, scientists, journalists and green politicians have now created accounts on the platform. These include: ecologistGreenpeace, WWF, RSPB, Just Stop Oil, Extinction Rebellion, Green Party, Carbon Brief.

Hayhoe still uses X, but primarily to encourage his followers to migrate to Bluesky. “Bluesky has grown exponentially and is increasing exponentially because of all the tools they have. That’s attractive to scientists – we love tools,” she said.

Hayho has multiple “starter pack” – Bluesky tool that allows users to create a list of accounts. New users can use it to quickly discover and follow large numbers of accounts under a particular theme.

She says Bluesky’s list of 4,000 climate scientists has already surpassed the 3,300 people it connected with on Twitter during its heyday.

“I am now as involved with Bluesky as I am with other people in academia on Twitter, and the personal benefit in terms of staying up to date with the latest science has already exceeded my maximum on Twitter. ,” says Hayhoe.

Bitwixt

Recently, we have also noticed a significant increase in the number of followers among the general population, politicians, news organizations, and journalists.

But many people, including Avery, keep their X accounts open.

It feels like early days for Bluesky, as many of the people and organizations he wants to interact with, including government departments and congressional committees, have yet to open accounts.

Additionally, he commented that people with accounts are not necessarily interacting with each other on Twitter as much as they used to. “Blue Sky feels like a village where not many people live, so we are a little lost at the moment.

productive

“I always disconnect from Twitter, but I still stay there for some business. The more people move, the easier the decision to delete my account will be.” he said.

Schroeder Tell believes that the fragmentation of the environmental movement across platforms does not necessarily mean it will become more polarized.

“All social networks tend to form bubbles, but our experience post-exit shows that productive and heterogeneous discussions are possible on and between other platforms.”

In fact, he believes that X tolerates the spread of disinformation, hate speech, and discrimination, actively promoting division and undermining democratic standards.

this author

Katherine Early is a freelance environmental journalist and chief reporter for The Ecologist. Find her at Bluesky @catearly.bsky.social.