A longitudinal analysis of misinformation, polarization and toxicity on Bluesky after its public launch

TL;DR

This study provides a detailed longitudinal analysis of Bluesky's user activity, content dynamics, and misinformation trends following its public launch, highlighting its growth, content quality, and moderation effectiveness.

Contribution

It offers the first comprehensive analysis of Bluesky's early user behavior, content quality, and misinformation dynamics during its initial two months after public release.

Findings

Bluesky has activity levels similar to established platforms.

High proportion of original content relative to reshared posts.

Low toxicity levels observed among users.

Abstract

Bluesky is a decentralized, Twitter-like social media platform that has rapidly gained popularity. Following an invite-only phase, it officially opened to the public on February 6th, 2024, leading to a significant expansion of its user base. In this paper, we present a longitudinal analysis of user activity in the two months surrounding its public launch, examining how the platform evolved due to this rapid growth. Our analysis reveals that Bluesky exhibits an activity distribution comparable to more established social platforms, yet it features a higher volume of original content relative to reshared posts and maintains low toxicity levels. We further investigate the political leanings of its user base, misinformation dynamics, and engagement in harmful conversations. Our findings indicate that Bluesky users predominantly lean left politically and tend to share high-credibility sources. After the platform's public launch, an influx of new users, particularly those posting in English and Japanese, contributed to a surge in activity. Among them, several accounts displayed suspicious behaviors, such as mass-following users and sharing content from low-credibility news sources. Some of these accounts have already been flagged as spam or suspended, suggesting that Bluesky's moderation efforts have been effective.