Following the US presidential election, Swifties, the identify for Taylor Swift’s followers, are fleeing X for Bluesky. X’s proprietor, billionaire Elon Musk, was one in every of Donald Trump’s greatest backers, funneling over $100 million into the Trump-supporting America PAC; stumping for the candidate on the marketing campaign path; and boosting Trump’s messaging on X. Musk additionally helped Trump faucet right into a distinctly right-wing male viewers. Swifties, who’ve constructed a strong neighborhood on the platform previously often called Twitter, took discover. By Thursday, lower than 48 hours after Trump received the presidency, they have been beginning to flock from the platform for good.
“I like the thought of constructing a brand new neighborhood right here and would love to not should assist Elon in any approach,” says Justin, who goes by @justin-the-baron.swifties.social on Bluesky and requested to make use of solely his first identify for concern of harassment. “Elon is in fact an enormous Trump supporter, which does not align with Taylor’s values or the values of Swifties.”
Although there are Swifties on all sides of the political spectrum, the neighborhood prides itself on being a constructive and accepting area. After Kamala Harris was introduced because the Democratic nominee for president, Swifties started to mobilize to assist her. In September, Swift herself endorsed Harris. In an Instagram submit saying her assist, Swift cited AI-generated photos of herself and her followers that had been utilized by Trump to suggest she’d endorsed him.
Following the endorsement, Musk posted, “Superb Taylor … you win … I offers you a baby and guard your cats with my life.” Musk, who has repeatedly shared issues about declining beginning charges, has not less than 11 kids with not less than three girls. In response to The New York Instances, he additionally supplied his sperm to Nicole Shanahan, the previous working mate for impartial candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (She declined.)
Irene Kim, an organizer with Swifties for Harris, says that the outpouring of misogyny following the election pushed her and plenty of different Swift followers to desert X and search refuge on Bluesky. Although analysis has discovered that hate speech and disinformation elevated after Musk took over the platform, the election of Trump appears to have supercharged it. A report from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue discovered that within the 24 hours following Trump’s electoral victory, phrases like “Your physique, my selection,” parroting the election night time rhetoric of white supremacist Nick Fuentes, rose 4,600 p.c on X.
“I believe that is the form of rhetoric we wish to get away from,” Kim says. She additionally notes that X’s latest replace to the “block” function, which permits folks to see the profile and posts of customers which have blocked them, has contributed to a extra detrimental expertise on the platform. “Twitter has undoubtedly change into such a hellscape,” Kim says.
