One thing‘s for sure: It‘s hard to imagine a world without Facebook
Not because the site is that good - even those who profited from the platform for many years would not go as far as to make that claim. But rather because it has been the default hub for most people‘s online activities for such a long time. Now that Twitter has turned into X and become mostly meaningless for the creative industry, our entire idea of social media is being challenged. For musicians, it can feel like a free fall. Although Meta‘s products, which, besides Facebook, also include Instagram and threads, had seemed useless for a long time now, there was always a last glimmer of hope that the next post or paid ad might generate a little attention, however small and insignificant. That hope may now finally have died.
At first glance, Bluesky simply looks like a more elegant, softer Facebook relaunch without the annoying sponsored posts and adverts. But the idea that the site could swallow up all the Facebook emigrants, eradicate the original‘s multifold issues and turn into the Internet‘s new key node seems unrealistic. Admittedly, Bluesky has, in recent months, grown considerably: „The value of social networks to the user is based on the number of people there. Networks have to reach a critical mass of users before they actually manage to take off,“ says digital culture expert Adam Tinworth, „Bluesky is picking up waves of users and the community is pushing it towards a level of sustainability.“ Currently, its growth even exceeds that of twitter in its infancy, even if it does not yet come close to the numbers of that site‘s explosive phase. Nevertheless, it is doubtful that Bluesky will indeed mature into the ultimate media channel.
The main reason is that the decision in favour of Bluesky is above all a decision against Facebook.
It all goes back to that aforementioned policy change. In a radical paradigm shift, Mark Zuckerberg had announced that content would no longer be self-regulated moving forward, but instead be regulated using the same Community Notes that had already caused a stir on Twitter. Here, the community moderates itself by adding notes to potentially offensive, hurtful or factually incorrect posts, explaining why this content should not be trusted or shared.
In the USA in particular, conservative forces have argued that this approach supports freedom of speech, as it makes it easier to at least debate unpopular opinions that would be labelled as absurd or unacceptable from the outset by the liberal media. From the point of view of critics, however, it is precisely this laissez-faire approach that helps extreme positions and false reports to spread virally - #
„Racism is not protected by freedom of expression“,
as Patrick Gensing from Hamburg football club St. Pauli which recently made the fully-fledged transition from FB to Bluesky, sees it.
The fact that Zuckerberg announced the new policy just shortly after Trump‘s election to the White House and reinforced its weight by simultaneously eliminating protective measures against marginalised groups at Meta did not exactly endear his decision to many artists.
However, the issue is by no means as black and white as it may initially seem. Various studies have demonstrated that Community Notes are not a bad principle per se. On the contrary, in practice they have even proven to be remarkably effective in stopping the spread of offensive content.
The case of twitter is rather atypical in this regard. It was not the introduction of Community Notes as such which triggered the site‘s downfall, but a whole package of far more egregious changes which combined to favour extremist positions over moderate ones. The notion that a community, if presented with the right set of basic regulations, could be capable of policing itself is certainly no more unrealistic than the idea that a centralised system of checks ensures optimal protection. It is significant in this regard that left-wing journalist and founder of independent news agency Young Turks, Cenk Yuger, even welcomed Meta‘s move. To him, Community Notes are the final and much-needed nail in the coffin of precisely those traditional media that, he claims, have so often distorted the truth in recent decades.
Bluesky, meanwhile, works with its own, idiosyncratic system which it calls „composable moderation.“ Essentially, users can tag individual posts or selected user accounts as offensive or undesired. With just a few clicks, they can now completely exclude content labelled in this way from their feed. This means that users only see and interact with what they want and avoid external interference, paid posts and adverts (which, according to management, will remain impossible). This sounds like a much „cleaner“ experience, which according to most people who have gathered experience on the site, it is indeed. At the same time, it‘s also a much less inspiring and stimulating one, as journalist Katherine Alejandra Cross finds: „If Bluesky’s composable moderation works, and if it truly becomes the open protocol it promises, the entire point is that there won’t be one boulevard, but something closer to Melbourne’s famous laneways. Distinctive, narrower, a little wilder, but a lot smaller and broken up all over the internet’s vast city. (…) The goal is fragmentation, the very opposite of what made Twitter what it was.“
Personalised networks look likely to become the model of the future
Some users will leave Facebook but stay on Instagram. Others will leave Instagram but stay on tumblr. The majority are likely to remain loyal to Facebook, at least for the time being. The past, which is paved with scandals and waves of dissatisfaction, has proven that switching to a new network is a big step and old habits die hard. Among musicians in particular, dissatisfaction with Meta‘s algorithm has long been a smouldering bone of contention, and the policy change was just the straw that broke the camel‘s back. Less committed users may not feel similarly triggered.
Overall, however, the selection of extremely specialised platforms will continue to increase, if only because the big tech companies seem incapable or unwilling to learn from their mistakes. When it, for example, emerged that Instagram was using artworks posted by its users to train AI, artists were outraged. Meta, however, refused to bow down and a significant number of painters, designers and graphic artists migrated to more ethical alternatives such as Cara.
In other areas, LinkedIn and Xing have long established themselves as better networks for business contacts and there are now even social networks aimed exclusively at Latina women (Amigahood). It is precisely this fragmentation that will in all probability become the defining feature of the post-Facebook reality – and it puts an end to the dream of being able to reach the whole world through a single site. This sounds a little tragic at first, but it doesn‘t necessarily have to be. After all, the key problem with the architecture of Facebook and Twitter was precisely that feeds quickly became unmanageable, attention dissolved and discussions became more hostile and anonymous.
In a way, it is quite a relief to see one‘s circle of friends reduced to genuine acquaintances, conversations once again focussed on honest exchanges, collaboration and cooperation coming before marketing and self-promotion. It may not change the world immediately and in the long term, these small enclaves may end up feeling a little isolated. But as a first step towards a better future it could well be healing.
We should probably award the end or non-end of Facebook neither too much nor too little attention. The real question seems to be: Where is your audience headed? The answer to that question already holds the real key to how you should position yourself in the future. As part of these considerations, one of the Internet‘s oldest components could well stage a sensational comeback: Your own homepage. In many ways, it suddenly seems like the ideal way to reach your potential audience: Directly, without moderation and with precisely the content that you personally believe will provide the best experience.
