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As X shuts down Communities, Acorn debuts an alternative that puts creators in control
A new project called Acorn has launched a way for organizations and creators to build their own online communities as an alternative to centralized social media platforms like Instagram, X, and Threads. It uses the same underlying technology that powers the decentralized social media app Bluesky, allowing communities to build their own homepages, create starter packs for new members, and customize feeds and moderation tools.
Mastodon says its flagship server was hit by a DDoS attack
When aimed at decentralized social networking services, the attacks can cause instability and outages, but not everyone is taken offline. In Bluesky’s case, for instance, those who had moved their account to other providers, like Blacksky, which run on the same protocol and interoperate with Bluesky, were not impacted.
Bluesky confirms DDoS attack is cause of continued app outages
Notably, the service disruptions are impacting Bluesky, but other communities, like Blacksky, that run their own infrastructure on the underlying protocol that powers the decentralized social network, are still functioning. Blacksky’s team told TechCrunch that the Bluesky outage has led to a “significant spike” in migration requests from Bluesky users over the past 12 hours, as users, devs, and other ATmosphere founders like Sebastian at Eurosky have been promoting its services.
A startup called Germ becomes the first private messenger that launches directly from Bluesky’s app
Xue agreed, adding, “We align with the ATProto ethos that people should be able to communicate using the apps and tools they choose. We believe that by solving the hard problems for ATProto users in safe, transparent, and user-friendly ways, they’ll continue to choose us,” he said. Shortly after Bluesky added support for the Germ badge, another AT Protocol-based client, Blacksky, did as well.
A new wave of social media apps provide hope in a doomscrolling world
“We’re demonstrating with AT Protocol that you can have a great user experience, have a good time again on the internet, and have real autonomy the entire time,” Fraser said.
Mississippi’s age assurance law puts decentralized social networks to the test
An overly broad age assurance law in Mississippi is leading to arguments about which platforms — Bluesky, Mastodon, or others — offer the best solution for avoiding crackdowns on internet freedoms.
Skylight’s TikTok alternative adds community curators to the mix
A startup called Skylight is taking a different approach to short-form video. Instead of restricting users to an algorithmic main feed, as is common on social apps, Skylight is building a community around human curators who post and repost videos to build out their own custom feeds others can subscribe to.
A world without Caesars: How the ATProto community is rebuilding the web to return power to the people
BlackSky founder Rudy Fraser hit an emotional note on Saturday when talking about using ATProto to build communities. His project today offers moderation and support that makes social media a safer place for Black users, including those migrating from the online community known as Black Twitter. Eventually, BlackSky may run on all of its own ATProto-based infrastructure and offer its own consumer-facing client.