Twitter's founder launches beta for new social media company just as Elon Musk buys Twitter

Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is trialing a beta version of a new social media venture.

It's taking a while for the fact that Elon Musk is the new CEO of Twitter to sink in, so much so that the tech mogul himself brought a sink to work on his first day as chief Twit.

Now, as people come to terms with what a changing Twitterscape and a mass exodus of celebs cutting ties with the platform, Jack has something in his back pocket.

That's right, if you were considering dropping out of the Twitter-sphere, Jack's new social media platform Bluesky might just be the thing for you.

Taking a different approach to socials, the new company said on its website: "We‘re building the AT Protocol, a new foundation for social networking which gives creators independence from platforms, developers the freedom to build, and users a choice in their experience."

And, for anyone wondering what exactly a 'new foundation' for socials means, we'll fill you in.

PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo

So, Bluesky was launched as a non-profit initiative by Twitter in 2019, with Jack saying in an announcement: "Twitter is funding a small independent team of up to five open source architects, engineers, and designers to develop an open and decentralised standard for social media. The goal is for Twitter to ultimately be a client of this standard."

The social media venture moves away from the existing framework of a company controlling a platform for users, with advertising schemes in place for profit.

Instead, Jack's new project will use an Authenticated Transfer Protocol, a federated social network, that is run by many sites instead of just one.

Think of it like a de-centralised version of Twitter, giving more space for open conversations across platforms.

bluesky/Twitter

Of course, it took some time to build and Bluesky went through the necessary research phases up until now, with it being rolled out for a private beta test over the last week.

Users can now sign up before the project becomes publicly available and given that the initiative has had over 30k sign-ups since rolling out, it's safe to say people are interested to see what the platform has to offer.

The company says that what sets them apart from competitors is its account portability, algorithmic choice, interoperation (multiple different products interacting) and performance.

Only time will tell how it holds up against Twitter.

We wonder if Elon will sign up.