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Bluesky’s Commitment to User Privacy in AI Training
In the wake of the recent US elections, Bluesky has made headlines by announcing that it will not utilize user-generated content for training generative AI models. This decision sharply contrasts with the policies of X (formerly Twitter) and Meta’s Threads, which have adopted more permissive approaches regarding user data. Notably, this announcement coincided with X’s implementation of new terms allowing third-party entities to leverage user posts for AI training.
User Concerns Addressed
Bluesky acknowledged the apprehensions expressed by artists and creators who have chosen its platform as their home. In a statement shared on Friday, Bluesky emphasized: “We do not use any of your content to train generative AI and have no intention of doing so.” This commitment aims to reassure users about their data privacy amidst growing concerns over how social media platforms handle personal information.
AI Utilization for Content Moderation
In a subsequent update, Bluesky clarified its stance on artificial intelligence usage within its operations. The platform employs AI tools internally to enhance content moderation processes. According to their post, “Bluesky uses AI internally to assist in content moderation, which helps us triage posts and shield human moderators from harmful content.” Additionally, they mentioned that these algorithms also support features like the Discover feed.
The company was quick to clarify that none of these systems are generative AIs trained on user contributions.
The Open Nature of Bluesky’s Data Policy
The Verge highlighted an interesting aspect regarding Bluesky’s robots.txt file—this policy does not prevent major generative AI companies such as OpenAI or Google from accessing its data. Emily Liu, a spokesperson for Bluesky, explained this situation by stating: “Just as robots.txt files don’t always prevent outside companies from crawling those sites, the same applies here.” She further noted that while they aim for external organizations to respect user consent actively discussions are ongoing within their team about how best to achieve this goal.
A Growing Platform Post-Election
Despite being relatively new compared to competitors like X and Threads, Bluesky has experienced significant growth following the US elections. The platform recently surpassed 15 million users after gaining over one million new accounts in just one week.
A report from SimilarWeb revealed that this surge in signups correlated with an increase in account deactivations on X; specifically noting that “more than 115,000 US web visitors deactivated their [X] accounts” on November 7—marking a record high during Elon Musk’s leadership period. Furthermore, both web traffic and daily active users for Bluesky saw substantial increases leading up to election day and continuing afterward.
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