Bluesky wants us to imagine a ‘world without Caesars’

In a world of billionare-owned social media, Bluesky CEO Jay Graber needs to ship a transparent message. Decentralized open-source platforms, just like the one she runs, prioritize person management over company pursuits.

And what higher technique to say that than with a T-shirt that calls out Fb founder Mark Zuckerberg?

Speaking at SXSW 2025, Graber wore a shirt that learn Mundus sine Caesaribus (“A world with out Caesars” in Latin). It used the identical design because the one Zuckerberg wore at Meta Connect 2024, a now infamous shirt that read Aut Zuck aut nihil (“Zuck or nothing”).

“If a billionaire tried to wreck issues,” Graber stated of Bluesky, “customers might simply go away — with out dropping their id or information.” Bluesky’s open protocol provides customers the flexibility to “fork off” the community if wanted, Graber added.

Bluesky, initially spun out of Twitter, has grown to over 32 million users. Its AT Protocol permits customers to personal their identities and their expertise on the platform with out Bluesky’s permission.

“The important thing to what we’re doing is shifting energy again to customers and builders,” Graber stated. Bluesky isn’t simply one other social media app, she emphasised — it is a complete structural various to greater platforms.

Graber drew a vibrant line between Bluesky and billionaire-owned social media in one other key space: content material moderation. Bluesky’s opt-in method lets customers set up third-party moderation companies, filtering content material to suit their preferences.

“Moderation is governance,” Graber stated. “It’s about selecting the way you need your digital house to be ruled.”

The Bluesky ecosystem consists of apps from Flashes, a third-party photo-sharing service, to Flushing.im, a joke app for logging lavatory visits. “You may actually construct something,” Graber laughed.

Regardless of its beliefs, Bluesky faces challenges. The corporate has said it is exploring subscription models, and developer companies, with a view to stay financially viable.

Graber stays optimistic that sufficient individuals need this service to maintain it moving into the long term. “We don’t assume social media must be inherently poisonous,” she stated. “We need to give individuals actual selection — not only a new platform, however a brand new paradigm.”