Bluesky signups up 60%

[bnew]

Swiss health office turns to Bluesky against backdrop of US censorship

The Swiss Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) has joined the Bluesky social network, while US President Donald Trump works with X owner Elon Musk to censor content on official US websites.

www.swissinfo.ch

Swiss health office turns to Bluesky against backdrop of US censorship​

FOPH turns to Bluesky against a backdrop of American censorship Keystone-SDA

The Swiss Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) has joined the Bluesky social network, while US President Donald Trump works with X owner Elon Musk to censor content on official US websites. For the time being, the FOPH remains active on X.

This content was published on February 7, 2025 - 15:06

2 minutes

On Thursday, the FOPH announced on X that it is now present on the young Bluesky social network. News on health policy and public health issues will be published there, it says.

“For the time being, the FOPH will continue to use X in parallel,” spokesman Daniel Dauwalder told the Swiss News Agency Keystone-SDA on Friday. He declined to say whether this new presence on Bluesky was a consequence of the policies pursued by Trump since he took office at the end of January. This decision is part of the FOPH’s “multi-platform strategy”, he said.

+ Swiss public broadcasters withdraw from X/Twitter

In recent days, the Trump administration has made hundreds of government sites inaccessible, including that of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which Musk wants to close. Content on AIDS or aimed at the LGBTQ+ community has been removed.

+ More and more Swiss celebrities and institutions leaving X

Other institutions and political figures have taken the step of leaving X for good. These include the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) and the Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research (SLF). Interior Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider has also turned her back on the social network owned by billionaire Elon Musk, preferring Threads.

+ Does social media fuel fake news in Switzerland as much as in the US?

Translated from French by DeepL/ts

 

[newarkhiphop]

officially closing my Twitter tommrrow, place is a hell hole

 

[bnew]

https://archive.is/MRLaA

NBA (@nba.com)

The official account for the NBA

bsky.app

---

Bluesky Wins (@blueskywins.bsky.social)

Sports leaving Twitter will kill the platform, big win as German football club, Karlsruher SC ditches the fashy place @ksc.de 88.3K Followers on X 👏👏👏 This is now the 3rd German club to leave Twitter, haven't found a single club from any other country. Well done Germany

bsky.app

Spoiler: full text & large images

1/2
Bluesky Wins

Sports leaving Twitter will kill the platform, big win as German football club, Karlsruher SC ditches the fashy place

Karlsruher SC (@ksc.de)
88.3K Followers on X


This is now the 3rd German club to leave Twitter, haven't found a single club from any other country. Well done Germany

2/2
‪Jackson Balling‬ ‪@blanktapes.co‬

To post tweets in this format, more info here: https://www.thecoli.com/threads/tips-and-tricks-for-posting-the-coli-megathread.984734/post-52211196

 

[bnew]

Bluesky Deletes AI Protest Video of Trump Sucking Musk's Toes, Calls It 'Non-Consensual Explicit Material'

Bluesky has deleted the most viral post reporting on an internal government protest agains the President of the United States and the world's richest man.

www.404media.co

Bluesky Deletes AI Protest Video of Trump Sucking Musk's Toes, Calls It 'Non-Consensual Explicit Material'​

Feb 26, 2025 at 11:52 AM

Bluesky has deleted the most viral post reporting on an internal government protest agains the President of the United States and the world's richest man.

Update: After this article was published, Bluesky restored Kabas' post and told 404 Media the following: "This was a case of our moderators applying the policy for non-consensual AI content strictly. After re-evaluating the newsworthy context, the moderation team is reinstating those posts."

Bluesky deleted a viral, AI-generated protest video in which Donald Trump is sucking on Elon Musk’s toes because its moderators said it was “non-consensual explicit material.” The video was broadcast on televisions inside the office Housing and Urban Development earlier this week, and quickly went viral on Bluesky and Twitter.

Independent journalist Marisa Kabas obtained a video from a government employee and posted it on Bluesky, where it went viral. Tuesday night, Bluesky moderators deleted the video because they said it was “non-consensual explicit material.”

“A Bluesky account you control (@marisakabas.bsky.social) posted content or shared a link that contains non-consensual explicit material, which is in violation of our Community Guidelines. As a result of this violation, we have taken down your post,” an email Kabas received from Bluesky moderation reads. “We trust that you will understand the necessity of these measures and the gravity of the situation. Bluesky explicitly prohibits the sharing of non-consensual sexual media. You cannot use Bluesky to break the law or cause harm to others. All users must be treated with respect.”

Kabas is challenging the deletion.





“Hello—the post you have taken down was a video broadcast inside a government building to protest a fascist regime,” Kabas wrote in an email back to Bluesky seen by 404 Media. “It is in the public interest and it is legitimate news. Taking it down is an attempt to bury the story and an alarming form of censorship. I love this platform but I’m shocked by this decision. I ask you to reconsider it.”

Other Bluesky users said that versions of the video they uploaded were also deleted, though it is still possible to find the video on the platform.

Technically speaking, the AI video of Trump sucking Musk’s toes, which had the words “LONG LIVE THE REAL KING” shown on top of it, is a nonconsensual AI-generated video, because Trump and Musk did not agree to it. But social media platform content moderation policies have always had carve outs that allow for the criticism of powerful people, especially the world’s richest man and the literal president of the United States.

For example, we once obtained Facebook’s internal rules about sexual content for content moderators, which included broad carveouts to allow for sexual content that criticized public figures and politicians. The First Amendment, which does not apply to social media companies but is relevant considering that Bluesky told Kabas she could not use the platform to “break the law,” has essentially unlimited protection for criticizing public figures in the way this video is doing.

More importantly, the video Kabas posted was not a video Kabas made herself or that was totally devoid of context. As Kabas notes in her email back to Bluesky, the video was being played on television screens within a federal government office building, an obvious act of protest that she was reporting on, and an obviously newsworthy video when considering the context that the federal government is currently being gutted by these two men. (For what it's worth, Kabas has been doing some of the best reporting on Musk's dismantling of the federal government on her website The Handbasket.)

Content moderation has been one of Bluesky’s growing pains over the last few months. The platform has millions of users but only a few dozen employees, meaning that perfect content moderation is impossible, and a lot of it necessarily needs to be automated. This is going to lead to mistakes. But the video Kabas posted was one of the most popular posts on the platform earlier this week and resulted in a national conversation about the protest. Deleting it—whether accidentally or because its moderation rules are so strict as to not allow for this type of reporting on a protest against the President of the United States—is a problem.

Bluesky did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

 

[bnew]

[News/Updates] Opera integrates Bluesky into its browser

https://archive.is/MJ4xz

Spoiler: text

Wop wop!

We are growing.

Spoiler: text

From Opera article:

We’re constantly looking at the feedback our users provide underneath our blog posts, on Opera forums, and through social media. Whether you’re working with your team on Slack, chatting with your friends on Discord, or keeping in touch with your community via BlueSky, we want you to be able to do that directly from Opera,” said Joanna Czajka, Product Director at Opera.

 

[Anti-Anime]

anything is better than ketty wap's bot show.

 

[beenz]

I already made an account. I wish all the reputable news outlets were on there though

 

[beejus]

been on for a few months. it's slow on there so far, but I think it's just gonna take time for all the news, brands, entertainers to fully move over.

 

[No1]

I already made an account. I wish all the reputable news outlets were on there though

Most are and just don’t cross post.

 

[Peter Popoff]

I got it but don't know who to follow so I rarely use it.

 

[bnew]

[general chatter!] I made a tool to see trending posts and hashtags on Bluesky

https://archive.is/Fv6fW

Spoiler: text

Here is the link to try it out: Blue Crawler

It finds posts that have the most engagement (likes, comments, reposts) in the last 10 minutes. As such, you can see which posts or hashtags are getting the most attention.

It’s still a work in progress. Feel free to let me know if you have any ideas on how to improve it.

 

[bnew]

I got it but don't know who to follow so I rarely use it.

theres starter packs containing lists of accounts by interests

https://blueskystarterpack.com/categories

Bluesky Starter Packs - Bluesky Directory

Browse a list of Bluesky Starter Packs. Discover and connect with your community on Bluesky

blueskydirectory.com

 

[bnew]

[News/Updates] Senate Democrats have moved to BlueSky

Spoiler: text

Senate Democrats (@democrats.senate.gov)

We are the Senate Democrats, and we're working hard for the American people.

bsky.app

 

[bnew]

[News/Updates] Phoenix by Tapbots - A Bluesky client based on the award-winning Twitter app for iOS

Tapbots Making 'Phoenix' App for Bluesky

Tapbots, known for the now-defunct Tweetbot app, is planning to release a new app for the Bluesky social network later this year. Called Phoenix,...

www.macrumors.com

 

[bnew]

[News/Updates] Solutions for the Missing Bookmarks Feature

Spoiler: text

The official Bluesky app does not have a bookmarking feature. As a Mastodon user, I've grown accustomed to using bookmarks to not posts I want to use for reference or investigate when I have more time. There are a few apps and methods available to achieve this. Here are some that I like.


‎SkyMarks - Free app for Macs and iOS allows you to create bookmarks through the sharesheet and access them on any devices using iCloud
deck.blue - A free website with multi-column interface like TweetDeck. I use it on my Mac as a PWA and it's the primary way I interact with Bluesky. Allows one click bookmarking of any post.
Skeets - a 3rd party iOS / iPad OS client for Bluesky - My mobile choice for Bluesky has built-in bookmarking and, remarkably, editing of posts within the first 10 minutes they are online.

Spoiler: text

Nice post! Thanks for high lightening some methods.

My favourite now is a DM to an alt account.

Bookmarks ~ Known Methods


DM/Chat to Alt - Super Private Bookmark ~ see link at bottom.
Bluesky ~ Public!
Bluesky ~ Private!
Bluesky Bookmarks ~ Androd PWA
‎SkyMarks + ‎Skeets for Bluesky


Corkiejp-notes-on-awesome-bluesky/morepages/bookmarksbookmarks.md at main · corkiejp/Corkiejp-notes-on-awesome-bluesky ~ highlighting methods, 6 desktop utilities extra!