Bluesky

Bluesky began life in 2019 as an internal research initiative at Twitter, when Jack Dorsey commissioned a project to explore decentralized social networking protocols. By 2021, it had spun out as an independent company, and when Twitter was acquired by Elon Musk in late 2022, Bluesky's mission took on new urgency. Millions of users disillusioned with the direction of X (formerly Twitter) flocked to Bluesky, transforming it from a technical experiment into a genuine social media platform with tens of millions of active users. While the company is incorporated in the United States, its decentralized architecture built on the AT Protocol means that the network itself is not confined to any single jurisdiction -- and European users can run their own servers within EU borders.

What makes Bluesky notable on a list of European-friendly alternatives is not its corporate headquarters but its architectural philosophy. The AT Protocol is designed so that no single company controls the network. Users can host their own data on Personal Data Servers (PDS), choose their own moderation services, and even migrate their entire account -- followers, posts, and identity -- to a different provider without losing anything. For Europeans concerned about US tech platform governance, this portability represents a fundamentally different power dynamic than any centralized social network can offer.

The AT Protocol: How It Works

The AT Protocol (Authenticated Transfer Protocol) is the open standard that powers Bluesky. It splits the network into several distinct layers: Personal Data Servers store user content, Relays aggregate data streams from across the network, and App Views assemble that data into the feeds and interfaces users interact with. This separation means that even if Bluesky the company were to disappear, the protocol and its data would persist across the network of independent servers.

In 2025, portions of the AT Protocol were submitted to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) for standardization, a significant step toward establishing it as a recognized internet standard alongside HTTP, SMTP, and ActivityPub. Written specifications for the protocol's repository formats and data synchronization processes have been filed as Internet Drafts. This standardization effort distinguishes the AT Protocol from proprietary social media APIs that can be restricted or revoked at any time.

Custom Feeds and Algorithmic Choice

One of Bluesky's most innovative features is its approach to content discovery. Rather than imposing a single algorithmic timeline controlled by the platform, Bluesky offers a "marketplace of algorithms" where anyone can create and publish custom feed generators. Users can subscribe to multiple feeds and switch between them -- a science feed, a local news feed, a quiet feed that only shows posts from people you actually follow, or a trending feed that surfaces popular content. This composable approach gives users genuine control over what they see.

Custom feeds are powered by third-party services that process the network's data firehose and produce curated post lists. This means algorithms compete on merit: if a feed surfaces spam or low-quality content, users simply unsubscribe and switch to a better one. For European users who have long argued that opaque algorithmic amplification drives polarization and manipulation, Bluesky's model represents a meaningful structural reform of how social media timelines work.

Moderation and Community Safety

Bluesky takes a layered approach to moderation that is strikingly different from centralized platforms. The base layer enforces legal requirements and removes clearly illegal content. Above that, independent moderation services can apply additional labels and filters. Users and communities can subscribe to the moderation services they trust, creating a system where moderation is not a one-size-fits-all decision imposed by a single corporate team in Silicon Valley.

The platform provides robust individual controls as well: users can mute or block accounts, filter posts by keyword, restrict who can reply to their posts, and choose which labeling services to trust. For European users accustomed to the Digital Services Act's requirements for platform transparency and user empowerment, Bluesky's moderation architecture aligns closely with the regulatory spirit even if the company itself is not EU-based.

Domain Handles and Portable Identity

Bluesky allows users to verify their identity by using a custom domain as their handle. Instead of @username.bsky.social, you can set your handle to @yourname.eu or @company.de, proving you control that domain. This is a simple but powerful identity verification system that does not rely on a paid blue checkmark or a corporate verification process. News organizations, governments, and businesses can use their official domain as their Bluesky identity, providing instant credibility.

Identity in the AT Protocol is cryptographically portable: your account is tied to a key pair rather than a server, which means you can move your entire identity -- posts, followers, following list -- from one PDS to another without losing anything. For Europeans who want the option to migrate their data to an EU-hosted server, this portability is a practical guarantee of data sovereignty that no centralized platform can match.

European Deployment and Data Sovereignty

While Bluesky the company operates from the US, the AT Protocol enables genuinely decentralized hosting. European users and organizations can run their own Personal Data Server (PDS) on EU infrastructure, keeping their posts, media, and social graph stored entirely within European jurisdiction. Several European hosting providers already offer PDS hosting services, and the self-hosting documentation is well-maintained for technical users.

The decentralized architecture also means that European regulators could, in theory, require that EU user data be stored on EU-based servers -- and the AT Protocol is designed to accommodate this without fragmenting the network. Posts from an EU-hosted PDS are still visible to the entire Bluesky network, and users on different servers interact seamlessly.

2026 Roadmap and Ecosystem Growth

Bluesky's 2026 roadmap focuses on improving the Discover feed with better content recommendations, introducing real-time features, and deepening interoperability with other AT Protocol applications. The platform is expanding beyond microblogging: apps like Streamplace for live streaming already connect to the same AT Protocol network, and live events on other AT Protocol apps surface as live badges on Bluesky profiles. This growing ecosystem mirrors the early web's interoperability, where email, forums, and websites all worked together through open standards.

The company has also signaled plans to introduce a subscription model for premium features, which would provide a revenue stream that does not depend on advertising or data monetization. For users wary of the attention economy business model that drives most social platforms, this is a promising direction.

Open Source and Transparency

Bluesky's codebase -- including the AT Protocol libraries, the PDS server software, and the official app -- is open source and published on GitHub. This transparency allows independent security researchers to audit the code, and it ensures that the community can fork the project if the company's direction ever diverges from user interests. The open-source nature also means that AT Protocol applications are not locked into Bluesky's ecosystem: developers can build entirely new social applications on the same protocol.

Who Should Use Bluesky?

Bluesky is the strongest alternative to Twitter/X for users who want a familiar microblogging experience with fundamentally better structural guarantees around data portability, algorithmic transparency, and moderation choice. Journalists, academics, tech professionals, and politically engaged Europeans will find a thriving community that skews toward substantive conversation. Organizations looking to establish a social media presence on a platform that is not controlled by a single billionaire will appreciate the decentralized governance model.

Users who require absolute certainty that their data is stored exclusively in the EU should consider running their own PDS on European infrastructure, which the AT Protocol explicitly supports. For those who simply want a better social media experience with more control and less algorithmic manipulation, Bluesky delivers that out of the box on its default servers.