Twitter rival Bluesky halts new sign-ups: Here's why
What's the story
Twitter's decision to limit the number of tweets a person can see has irked users. Many have left the platform in search of greener pastures. Bluesky, a decentralized Twitter rival, is one of the obvious choices for former Twitteratis. It seems the Jack Dorsey-backed platform got more than what it bargained for. The social media site has paused new sign-ups. Let's see why.
Context
Why does this story matter?
Twitter users were in for a massive surprise this weekend. The platform introduced temporary limits to readable tweets per day. According to Twitter owner Elon Musk, the decision was taken to prevent "data scraping and extreme system manipulation." It gave more ammunition to Twitter users who have been unhappy with the platform. Bluesky closely resembles Twitter, making it an easy alternative.
Traffic
Bluesky experienced a high influx of new users
Users need an invite code to join Bluesky. Despite that, it seems the platform has been experiencing a high influx of users. As a result, it "temporarily" halted sign-ups. "We will temporarily be pausing Bluesky sign-ups while our team continues to resolve the existing performance issues," it wrote in a post. The company said it will provide an update when invite codes resume functionality.
Performance issues
The platform had performance issues due to high traffic
According to Bluesky's status page, it started experiencing "degraded performance" at around 11:15 pm IST on July 1. The issue continued on July 2. Many users found that posts took longer to load. In a post, the platform said it is dealing with "record high traffic." Bluesky also disabled the 'Popular with Friends' feed due to issues.
Information
Bluesky pushed updates to deal with server load
To deal with performance issues, Bluesky pushed Android and iOS updates. The updates were aimed at reducing the server load and getting it back on track. However, the platform is yet to restart new sign-ups.
Threads
Meta's Threads made a brief appearance on Google Play
Separately, Meta's upcoming Twitter rival 'Threads' made a brief appearance on Google Play. It seems that it was an accident. Threads will be a decentralized app that resembles a mixture of Instagram and Twitter. Users will be able to sign in with their Instagram account. With Twitter on the back foot, this is a good time for Meta to release Threads.