**Mass Exodus from X: Users Flock to Alternative Platforms Following Election**

The aftermath of last week's election saw a massive shift in social media usage, as a significant number of users abandoned X, the platform once known as Twitter, which experienced its largest user exodus since Elon Musk's acquisition in 2022. This movement has driven many towards alternative text-based social media apps such as Bluesky and Instagram's Threads.

Kara Wurtz, a finance director from St. Louis, epitomizes this exodus. After eight years on Twitter, Wurtz found the platform increasingly unappealing under Musk's leadership, particularly noting an uptick in harmful content. "Every time I opened it up, it would throw things at me that put me in a bad mood," Wurtz recounted. The day after the election marked her final disengagement from the platform.

The shift is reflected in the swelling numbers of users on competing platforms. Bluesky, for instance, reported a surge of over 1 million new users in just the past week, pushing its user base above 15 million. Additionally, Instagram's Threads has surpassed 275 million monthly active users, as announced by Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram.

Notably, Bluesky has quickly risen to the top of Apple's App Store, currently holding the no. 1 spot in free apps, ahead of Threads, according to Similarweb, a third-party social media analytics company. This data also shows that on November 6, Bluesky's daily traffic exceeded that of Threads.

Various user demographics have contributed to this migration. For example, Noëlle Polo, a Texan in her early twenties and a prominent Taylor Swift fan, joined Bluesky shortly after the election. Polo points out the appeal of Bluesky over Threads, especially for individuals wanting to keep their public fan accounts separate from private profiles.

Brands and public figures, too, are reconsidering their social media strategies. José Vilson, an educator and author, and Laura Sell, a marketing manager at Duke University Press, are both navigating the challenges of maintaining their presence on multiple platforms, including X, Threads, and Bluesky. Sell notes the difficulty in leaving X behind due to its large follower base, despite a noticeable rise in followers on other platforms.

Further complicating the decision to stay on X is the platform's new terms of service, which come into effect on Friday. These terms allow user posts to be used for training artificial intelligence models, a change that could prompt more users to delete their posts or deactivate their accounts entirely.

However, privacy concerns accompany these decisions. Privacy advocate Micah Lee is developing a new free service to help users delete posts across multiple platforms. Meanwhile, some users, like Dr. Jorge Caballero, have opted to fully embrace new platforms like Bluesky, finding them more conducive to their needs for community engagement and information dissemination.

As users, brands, and public figures weigh the pros and cons of staying on or leaving X, the social media landscape is undeniably changing, with new platforms rapidly gaining prominence amid shifting user preferences.