The Reason Elliot Page Is Trending on X Is Exactly Why It's Dying

We haven’t used X/Twitter in months. We’ve deleted all of our posts, and the only reason we haven’t deactivated our account is the concern that someone else might take the handle. That said, there are two former writers still active on the platform, so I check back a few times a week to see their posts and get a sense of the general vibe. These days, it feels like Facebook: lots of bots and right-wing trolls eager to dunk on libs but struggling to find many.

Today, “Ellen Page” is trending because Brie Larson got a pixie cut for her role as Elektra in a West London production of Sophocles, which the trolls are using as an excuse to call Larson a man for having short hair while simultaneously misgendering Elliot Page as a woman. Their misogyny and their transphobia are working at cross purposes. Celebrities and brands are leaving X in droves — 60,000 users a day are deactivating their accounts. The only relevant person still posting there is Elon Musk, and even he seems to be getting tuned out.

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Meanwhile, Bluesky is steadily growing. It now boasts 23 million users, and unlike the hundreds of millions of dormant accounts on X and Threads, these are active users (including me!). It’s genuinely fun. Even better, Bluesky is starting to shed its early obsession with X-bashing and overanalyzing its own etiquette, instead developing its own identity.

The real draw is that journalists, critics, and entertainment industry folks — the people who generated much of the sane discussion on X — have migrated to Bluesky. I’m also beginning to see Black Twitter — the group that brought 70% of the fun to X — slowly making its way over, too.

That’s not to say Bluesky is without growing pains. They’re scaling up servers to handle the increasing load, but occasional glitches still happen. Their content moderation team is expanding (the goal is to grow from 25 to 100 moderators in the short term), but for now, AI moderation occasionally overreaches, leading to some temporary suspensions. Scammers and predators are becoming a concern as well. Additionally, Bluesky’s lack of international infrastructure may cause regulatory challenges as it grows.

What is working spectacularly, however, is the lack of an algorithmically generated timeline. It’s refreshing to exist in a social media ecosystem that doesn’t manipulate engagement. Plus, there are no ads — and there won’t be in the future. Instead, they’re likely to introduce subscription options.

Bluesky’s momentum is clearly rattling Meta’s Threads. Once the go-to option for fleeing X users, Threads is scrambling to remain relevant. They’re finally giving users what they’ve been demanding — a chronological For You timeline and custom feeds — but it feels too late. Social media users are hesitant to trade one billionaire-owned platform for another, especially one as corporate and brand-driven as Threads. Poor Zuck just can’t catch a break.

Bluesky users can follow any or all of the Pajiba writers here.