When Bluesky CEO Jay Graber walked on stage at SXSW 2025 for her keynote dialogue, she wore a big black T-shirt together with her hair pulled again right into a bun. At first look, it’d seem as if she’s following the identical playbook that so many ladies in tech management have performed earlier than: downplaying her femininity to be taken severely.
The fact is far more attention-grabbing than that. What would possibly seem like your common black T-shirt is a refined, but clear swipe at Mark Zuckerberg, a CEO who represents every part that Bluesky is making an attempt to work in opposition to as an open supply social community.
The Meta founder and CEO has instantly in contrast himself to the Roman emperor Julius Caesar. His personal shirt declared Aut Zuck aut nihil, which is a play on the Latin phrase aut Caesar aut nihil: “Either Caesar or nothing.”
Graber’s shirt — which instantly copies the fashion of a shirt that Zuckerberg wore onstage just lately — says Mundus sine caesaribus. Or, “a world with out Caesars.”
With the way in which Bluesky is designed, Graber is actually placing her cash the place her mouth (or shirt) is. As a decentralized social community constructed upon an open supply framework, Bluesky differs from legacy platforms like Facebook in that customers have a direct, clear window into how the platform is being constructed.
“If a billionaire got here in and purchased Bluesky, or took it over, or if I made a decision tomorrow to alter issues in a approach that individuals actually didn’t like, then they may fork off and go on to a different utility,” Graber defined at SXSW. “There’s already purposes within the community that offer you one other approach to view the community, or you might construct a brand new one as nicely. And in order that openness ensures that there’s all the time the power to maneuver to a brand new various.”
Meanwhile, Meta has alienated customers by interfering in how folks expertise its platforms, and Bluesky has instantly benefitted from that. After Meta pushed controversial updates like coaching its AI on public person posts, or culling its third-party fact-checking packages, Bluesky skilled bursts of person progress.
Still, Bluesky has a protracted approach to go if it needs to topple the Roman Empire of Meta. While Graber’s platform is closing in on 33 million complete customers, Meta has 3.35 billion day by day energetic customers throughout all of its merchandise: Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook. For Meta, that’s round 40% of the world’s inhabitants.
But for a fledgling social community, Bluesky has created sufficient of a cultural footprint that it’s certain to stay round. Rome was not constructed — nor was it toppled — in a day.
