By ALI SWENSON and BARARA ORTUTAY

Bluesky's user base has skyrocketed for the reason that US presidential election, largely resulting from people taking refuge from Elon Musk's metas threads and their algorithms.

But with growth comes growing pains. It's not only human users flocking to Bluesky, but additionally bots, including those designed to create partisan divisions or redirect users to junk web sites.

The exploding user base – now surpassed 25 million – is the most important test yet for a comparatively young platform that has pitched itself as a social media alternative free from the issues of its competitors. According to research firm Similarweb, Bluesky added 7.6 million monthly lively app users on iOS and Android in November, up 295.4% since October. There were also 56.2 million desktop and mobile web visits throughout the same period, a 189% increase from October.

In addition to the US elections, Bluesky also got a lift when X was briefly banned in Brazil.

“They've achieved this surge in attention and have crossed the threshold where it's now worth flooding the platform with spam,” said Laura Edelson, an assistant professor of computer science at Northeastern University and a member of Issue One's Council on Responsible Social Media. “But they don’t have the cash flow, they don’t have the established team that would have a bigger platform, so they have to do everything very, very quickly.”

To accommodate the expansion of its small staff, Bluesky initially operated by invitation only until it opened to the general public in February. This period gave the location time to develop moderation tools and other special features attract recent userscorresponding to “starter packs” that provide lists of thematically curated feeds. Meta recently announced that it could be testing the same feature.

Compared to larger players like Metas Platforms or X, Bluesky has a “completely different” value system, said Claire Wardle, a professor at Cornell University and an authority on misinformation. This includes giving users more control over their experience.

“The first generation of social media platforms connected the world but ultimately consolidated power in the hands of a few companies and their executives.” Bluesky said in his blog in March. “Our online experience doesn’t have to depend on billionaires making unilateral decisions about what we see. With an open social network like Bluesky, you can design your own experience.”

Because of this mindset, Bluesky has achieved an underdog status that pulls users who’ve grown bored with the large players.

“People had the idea that it would be a different kind of social network,” Wardle said. “But the truth is, when there are a lot of people in one place and there is attention, that means it is in other people’s interests to use bots to create information that is consistent with their perspective.”

There is little data to assist quantify the rise of impersonator accounts, artificial intelligence-powered networks, and other potentially harmful content on Bluesky. But in recent weeks, users have began reporting large numbers of apparent AI bots following them. Publishing plagiarized articles or seemingly automated divisive comments in answers.

Lion Cassens, a Bluesky user and graduate student within the Netherlands, by accident found such a network – a gaggle of German-speaking accounts with similar bios and AI-generated profile pictures posted in replies to 3 German newspapers.

“I noticed some strange responses to a news story from the German newspaper Die Ziet,” he said in an email to The Associated Press. “I have great confidence in the moderation mechanism on Bluesky, especially compared to Twitter since the layoffs and because of Musk's more radical stance on free speech. But AI bots pose a huge challenge as they will only improve. I hope social media can keep up.”

Cassens said the bots' messages have been relatively harmless to date, but he is worried about how they might be used to mislead in the long run.

There are also signs that foreign disinformation narratives have found their technique to Bluesky. Disinformation research group Alethea pointed to a low-profile post containing a false claim about ABC News that was shared on Russian Telegram channels.

Copycat accounts present one other challenge. In late November, Alexios Mantzarlis, director of the Security, Trust and Safety Initiative at Cornell Tech, found that 44% of the 100 most-followed named people on Bluesky had no less than one duplicate account impersonating them. Two weeks later, Mantzarlis said Bluesky had removed about two-thirds of the duplicate accounts originally discovered – an indication that the location was aware of the issue and was attempting to fix it.

The company didn’t reply to multiple requests for comment for this story.

While the challenges are usually not yet on the dimensions faced by other platforms, Bluesky is at a “crossroads,” said Edward Perez, a board member of the nonpartisan nonprofit OSET Institute who previously led Twitter's civic integrity team.

“Whether BlueSky likes it or not, it is getting dragged into the real world,” Perez said, noting that the corporate must quickly prioritize threats and work to mitigate them if it desires to proceed to grow.

However, disinformation and bots won’t be the one challenges facing Bluesky in the approaching months and years. As a text-based social network, its entire premise is falling out of favor with younger generations. For example, a recent Pew Research Center survey found that only 17% of American teenagers used X, in comparison with 23% in 2022. For teenagers and young adults, TikTok, Instagram and other visually focused platforms are the places to go.

Political polarization also stands in the way in which of Bluesky ever reaching the scale of TikTok, Instagram and even X.

“Bluesky isn’t trying to be all things to all people,” Wardle said, adding that the times of Facebook or Instagram coming along and “trying to make everyone happy” are probably over. Social platforms are increasingly fragmented along political lines, and when this isn’t the case – see Meta's platforms – the businesses behind them are actively working to de-emphasize political content and messaging.

Originally published: December 23, 2024 at 10:18 am PST

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The economy was considered one of their top topics when voters went to the polls this 12 months. So what does Donald Trump's return to the White House – in addition to Republican gains in Congress – mean for the US economy?

I followed the election closely and was very keen on the economic plans of every candidate. I imagine there are two key areas particularly where Trump's victory could deliver economic advantages over the following 4 years. But there are also costs that should be paid.

Extension of Trump's 2017 tax law

Let's start with taxes.

Almost all provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act The 2017 laws, which Congress passed and Trump signed in his first 12 months in office, expires at the tip of 2025. If these parts of the law weren’t prolonged, they’d This would lead to a tax increase of around $4 trillion by 2034. This would place an extra burden on households which have endured a period of high inflation that has caused significant hardship for a lot of families – and contributed to Trump's victory.

Expanding individual income tax cuts would prevent marginal tax rates from increasing and, in comparison with phasing them out, would lead to marginal tax rates increasing Increasing economic performance in the long run. This is because lower taxes increase demand for goods and services within the short term. Lower tax rates increase the inducement to work, save and invest, which in the long run results in more hours worked, more capital, increased labor productivity and recent business creation.

The law also improved tax simplification Doubling the usual deduction. And it promoted equity by increasing the kid tax credit, reducing the variety of taxpayers subject to the choice minimum tax, and limiting deductions for state and native income taxes. The expiry of those provisions would lead to: a significant increase The tax burden for a lot of low- and middle-income households is increasing.

Given that Trump signed the law into law in 2017, I feel it's a great bet that he’ll at the very least extend the law, which shall be much easier with a Republican Congress. And many economists would argue That can be excellent news for American households and the economy as an entire.

Reduce more bureaucracy

Even more essential, in my opinion, are his more business-focused policies designed to advertise innovation, investment and productivity, a lot of which also relate to the 2017 tax law.

Some of those policies also relate to the identical tax law – and due to this fact will almost certainly be prolonged or reformed at first of Trump's second term. Two provisions that can soon expire are: 20% small business deduction and a measure that enables for billing of kit comparable to computers and manufacturing machines.

The small business deduction, which allows owners to deduct as much as 20% of their share of business income from their individual tax bill, It has been found to extend employment by 1.2 million jobs per 12 months. It can also be essential to be sure that small businesses remain competitive against larger competitors. It has been found to permit firms to cover the fee of kit entirely as an expense In the long run, increase economic output by around 5%.

It is very important to expand these provisions to avoid a big tax increase on small businesses that may harm job creation and innovation and result in slower growth and lower living standards.

A related problem is the accounting for research and development expenditure. The 2017 tax law actually increased taxes on corporations by mandating that spending be unfolded over five years, increasing the fee of capital and reducing incentives to speculate. Trump said he would change that Therefore, all expenses, including research and development, could be expensed immediately. This is meant to advertise economic growth.

In a broader sense, it was Trump's first term characterized by a discount in bureaucratic effort as regulatory reform was a significant focus of his administration. Research on the economic costs of recent regulations suggests that the extra regulatory burden was significantly less in the course of the Trump administration than in the course of the administrations of George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden.

Research suggests that the US economy stays suppressed cumbersome and poorly targeted regulations that slow growth and innovation. Trump has promised to further reduce regulations This could lead on to a big increase in economic performance.

Given the Promise of artificial intelligence To increase productivity and growth within the near future, I imagine it’s more essential than ever to be sure that government agencies set the foundations of the sport in a good and efficient way, without undermining the economic advantages of increased innovation.

Cost compensation

But there may be a giant caveat. An extension of those tax cuts will place a big burden on the national debt currently at an unsustainable level.

Since the turn of the century, U.S. debt has risen from $10 trillion to over $35 trillion Congressional Budget Office Projects that debt to GDP will rise from 99% in 2024 to 166% in 2054.

It is very important to reform the tax code to avoid a big increase in taxes. However, to avoid debt accumulation, it’s crucial to offset lost revenue through spending cuts. If this doesn’t occur, the deficit and national debt would rise significantly and the country's funds would turn into much more precarious.

But Trump could go further than simply finding balances. In my opinion, the brand new government taking office is the right time to establish a brand new Finance Commission to initiate a cross-party discussion on sustainable fiscal solutions.

The San Francisco-based social platform earned $29.9 million, or 16 cents per share, for the period led to September and reported revenue of $348.4 million, an amount below analysts' forecasts surpassed $312.8 million. Reddit also increased its every day users to 97.2 million, a 47% increase from the identical period last 12 months, in accordance with an organization statement.

In a letter to shareholders, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman said its latest AI translation feature — which allows readers to convert posts between English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and German — was a key driver of user growth, particularly internationally in countries similar to France, India and the Philippines. Huffman wrote that Reddit plans to expand this feature to over 30 countries by 2025.

“So far in 2024, 'Reddit' was the sixth most Googled word in the US, underscoring that people looking for answers, advice or community turn to Reddit,” Huffman wrote. “We saw this in real time when the White House came to Reddit to share critical information during recent hurricanes and reach people in affected areas with timely updates.”

While the corporate's promoting stays its primary income, Reddit notes in its earnings report that its recent data licensing deals are beginning to repay financially. Both Google and OpenAI have signed deals with Reddit to coach their artificial intelligence models on its content.

Reddit, whose investors include OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, went public in March at $34 per share. The stock has since tripled, rising 34% to $110.20 in morning trading on Wednesday.