Bluesky desires us to think about a ‘world with out Caesars’

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

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

Talking 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 Join 2024, a now notorious shirt that learn Aut Zuck aut nihil (“Zuck or nothing”).

“If a billionaire tried to spoil issues,” Graber stated of Bluesky, “customers may simply go away — with out shedding their id or knowledge.” Bluesky’s open protocol provides customers the power to “fork off” the community if wanted, Graber added.

Bluesky, initially spun out of Twitter, has grown to over 32 million customers. 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 different to larger platforms.

Graber drew a brilliant line between Bluesky and billionaire-owned social media in one other key space: content material moderation. Bluesky’s opt-in strategy 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 area 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 rest room visits. “You may actually construct something,” Graber laughed.

Regardless of its beliefs, Bluesky faces challenges. The corporate has stated it’s exploring subscription fashions, and developer companies, with the intention to stay financially viable.

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