The 'X-odus' (UK Edition)

Saskia

Aug 16, 2024 • 8 min read

More and more people in the UK are leaving X, so where are they going?

As I explored in my blog post Mojo Dojo Casa House: X & Masculinity - X has become a bit of a bin fire.

It was further proven recently when, after three young girls were tragically murdered at a Taylor Swift dance class, X users - including Elon Musk - used the platform to spread racist and xenophobic misinformation.

The flames of xenophobic Britain, fed by decades of Tory rule, were fanned out of control by Musk, Tate, and Yaxley-Lennon (aka Tommy Robinson). Creating so-called 'race riots'.

The attack took place on the 29th of July, riots began on the 30th and grew day by day over the week.

It's a pretty large topic so I'll add some more links at the end, but it's the context which is important.

X was worse than usual and when the owner, Musk, didn't try to stop the problem but actively became a part of the problem, many in the UK realised whatever they were holding onto at X wasn't worth it.

This prompted what many are calling the X-odus or the X-it. I prefer X-odus, it sounds more epic.

My Threads feed was full of people from the UK who'd left X and were looking for their community again, Bluesky and Threads were both trending on X for multiple days, and top voices in the UK posted to X that they were seeking alternatives.

This is what so many people who believe in the Fediverse and wider Social Web have been waiting for, a wave of thought leaders to finally get off of X and onto connected alternatives.

But did they actually move to social web alternatives? Let's have a look at Threads, Bluesky and Mastodon.

The Data - Threads

Threads haven't released any solid data. Whilst I'd love to see it, I don't think you need it to prove that there was steep incline in UK activity.

From Google Trends, you can see an incline in Threads mentions in the UK:

Likewise, The Newsmast Foundation (a UK charity) saw a large spike in activity from UK users on Threads - although this isn't proof of a UK wide X-odus.

The Threads tag 'BritsonThreads' has seen an increase in activity too. If you're curious, have a scroll and see just how many posts are referring to migration from the ominous 'other place'.

It isn't just individuals either, a number of organisations have joined (or come back to) Threads accounts in the UK - including indie news publications and nonprofits.

The commitment by some is so serious that Leeds Beckett University's in-house journalism student publication have committed to Threads instead of X. A new generation of journalists taught that X is no longer the place to break their news.

The Data - Bluesky

Bluesky (and their beautiful team) are much less tricky and have published the data for us.

They've just shared this image which shows data collected at 5 minute intervals over the last day, the blue line represents UK sign-ups:

It's safe to say that the users who chose Bluesky over (or alongside) Threads in the UK X-odus are still signing up in huge numbers.

There's some more complicated data, published last week by @mackuba.eu
on Bluesky which supports the theory that this didn't begin in the last couple of days, but began following the rioting in the UK last week:

Hmm definitely something going on… You can see that the number of posts didn't go up much, but number of events did. Bskycharts shows an increase in the number of follows specifically, DAU/MAU and PLC operations (new registrations) going up. 🤔 #BlueskyStats
— Kuba Suder 🇵🇱🇺🇦 (@mackuba.eu) 2024-08-07T18:19:44.083Z

The Google Trends data reflects the same:

The Data - Mastodon

Sadly, it seems Mastodon may have missed the party (perhaps I'll explore why I think this happened in another blog).

There hasn't been a huge spike in new users over the past week according to @mastodonusercount@mastodon.social - a bot which counts users by the hour.

Likewise, Google Trends didn't see a substantial spike like with Threads and Bluesky. Activity is steadily picking up, but nowhere near the levels of Threads and Bluesky. Interestingly, a lot of the activity is in Scotland, a place which has its own Mastodon server - mastodon.scot.

So, it happened?

Bluesky themselves say it did, but nothing official from Threads or Mastodon as of yet.

Bluesky has seen a 60% jump in general activity from accounts in the UK, with several Members of Parliament also joining the platform recently, the company said in an emailed statement on Monday...

Facebook and Instagram parent Meta said it did not have an update on user growth for its Twitter rival, Threads, in the UK.

Mastodon, another smaller X competitor, did not respond to Reuters' requests for user growth details. - Sophia, Reuters

When we compare the three, there is a very clear rise in activity on Google regarding social web platforms following the riots in the UK:

I think it's safe to assume that an X-odus did happen - whether to new accounts or old, forgotten accounts. People in the UK are looking for alternatives to X.

This could be huge for the Fediverse and wider Social Web.

With more and more influential users on platforms which are a part of, or can connect to, the Fediverse we've taken a giant leap towards a better connected social future.

Now it's time for, what I have labelled, the Fediverse Power Rangers to share the word about this tech and the fact we can all still connect - even if we chose a different lifeboat when we jumped from X.

Anuj Ahooja wrote a great piece on the work the Power Rangers are doing to grow the Fediverse, I'd recommend checking it out:

Articles on X Leavers

The X exodus that wasn’t | TechCrunch

When digging into the data to determine how large the exodus everyone on Threads is talking about actually is, we oddly came up short.

TechCrunchSarah Perez

Labour MPs may leave ‘hateful’ X amid Musk spat with Starmer

Social media site’s owner provoked row with Downing Street after claiming Britain was heading for civil war amid rioting

The TelegraphDominic Penna,