As Threads deprioritizes politics, Bluesky’s CEO touts custom feeds and user choice in social media
https://techcrunch.com/2024/02/14/as-threads-deprioritizes-politics-blueskys-ceo-touts-custom-feeds-and-user-choice-in-social-media/
Meta is in hot water after announcing plans to remove politics from its recommendations across Instagram and Threads, its new Twitter-like app for text-based posts. That leaves a window of opportunity for the startup Bluesky, whose CEO Jay Graber recently explained that Meta’s decision is emblematic of the types of problems that could emerge when you have “one algorithm run by one company,” and how Bluesky’s app is different.
“It’s sort of a black box, the company can do whatever they want, and users don’t really have a choice,” Graber said, in response to a question about Meta’s censoring of politics, in an interview on the Techmeme Ride Home podcast. “The goal of building in algorithmic choice at the start with Bluesky was so that you can always choose what kind of feed you’re going to get. You can control your scroll,” she added.