Liberal-leaning social media site Bluesky has crashed as two million new users joined after Twitter owner Elon Musk was named to Donald Trump‘s cabinet.

Developers warned the site was likely to act up on Thursday, though they didn’t single out the massive influx of Twitter refugees as the cause.

Samuel Newman said Bluesky was in read-only mode temporarily ‘because something fell over’ – and once it was restored it was still slow.

‘Today will get interesting! If the site goes down, maybe grab a soda, pet the kitty. We’ll hit it with a wrench as fast as we can,’ his coleague Paul Frazee wrote.

Frazee warned users they could expect posts and links to look like they didn’t work or weren’t posted because the site was loading slowly.

More than a million users signed up to Bluesky since Trump named Musk the co-head of the Department of Government Efficiency on Tuesday.

Trump said that Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy would ‘dismantle’ the $6.5 trillion federal government by co-leading the ‘Manhattan Project of our time’.

About 2.1 million signed up and the number of active users doubled since November 6, when Vice President Kamala Harris conceded the election to Trump.

Twitter, now branded as X, boasted it attracted more US visitors than ever on the same day, as Trump fans celebrated.

Yet it also saw 115,000 American users deactivate, a record daily high under Musk’s tenure.

Bluesky is almost visually indistinguishable from X, with its logo being a butterfly in an identical shade of blue to the former Twitter bird.

It was originally created by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey in 2019 and grew after Musk’s acquisition of the social media giant.

Meta, owner of Facebook and Instagram, also launced Threads last year, which is far bigger with 15 million new accounts this month alone – as many as the total number of Bluesky users.

Both are seen as having liberal-leaning userbases that can seem like left-wing echo chambers due to algorithms.

Conversely, Twitter lurched to the right since Musk bought it, as those on the left steadily left or stopped using it in favor of Threads or nothing.

Outraged over Musk‘s support and promotion of Trump, record numbers fled the Tesla tycoon’s social media platform, including the singer Lizzo, who jokingly nicknamed the switch to Bluesky ‘the great migration’.

Bluesky has topped the iPhone App store rankings, well ahead of X in 25th place

The Guardian also said it would no longer post on the ‘toxic’ site in the wake of the November 5 result, complaining about how Musk used Twitter’s ‘influence to shape political discourse’.

The left-leaning newpaper’s boycott also cited the ‘often disturbing content’ such as ‘far-right conspiracy theories and racism’.

Bluesky on Wednesday shot to the top spot in the iPhone App Store – ahead of Meta‘s X/Twitter competitor Threads, ChatGPT, and Google.

Meanwhile, X sits 25th in the free app rankings, behind McDonald’s, Facebook, YouTube, Indeed, and Amazon.

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Telegram CEO Pavel Durov is offering free In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) treatments to women willing to use his sp£rm.

His offer is an effort to help women struggling with infertility.

Apart from offering sp£rm, Durov would also be paying for all IVF procedures through his partnership with the Altravita fertility clinic.

“We are happy to offer you a unique opportunity! Only in our clinic can you undergo IVF for free, using Pavel Durov’s sp£rm – one of the most famous and successful entrepreneurs of our time,” a message on Altravita’s website reads.

The clinic has pledged to offer top-tier care, working with some of the leading specialists in reproductive health and using state-of-the-art technology to ensure the best possible outcomes.

The process for women wishing to participate is simple but selective. Interested individuals can reach out to Altravita to schedule an initial consultation.

Earlier, in a post on Telegram, the CEO disclosed he fathered “over 100 biological kids” over 15 years.

“I was just told that I have over 100 biological kids. How is this possible for a guy who has never been married and prefers to live alone?” he wrote.

He recounted the story of how a friend first approached him for a sp£rm donation 15 years ago.

“He said that he and his wife couldn’t have kids due to a fertility issue and asked me to donate sp£rm at a clinic for them to have a baby,” said Pavel, adding that though he initially laughed it off, he realised later that his friend was serious.

Eventually, he agreed, setting in motion a series of donations that would go on to impact many families.

He wrote, “Fast forward to 2024, my past donating activity has helped over a hundred couples in 12 countries to have kids. Moreover, many years after I stopped being a donor, at least one IVF clinic still has my frozen sp£rm available for anonymous use by families who want to have kids.”

“The shortage of healthy sp£rm has become an increasingly serious issue worldwide, and I’m proud that I did my part to help alleviate it,” Durov added.

Elon Musk explains why Starlink halted new subscriptions in Nairobi, other areas

Starlink internet owner and American billionaire Elon Musk has clarified the temporary suspension of new subscriptions in Nairobi and other areas.

Why Starlink halted new subscriptions

The satellite internet firm, which provided stiff competition for local internet service providers (ISPs), halted the subscription of both residential and business packages, citing capacity.

Musk explained that the SpaceX subsidiary is working to increase the internet capacity in densely populated areas, especially urban centres.

The technology entrepreneur urged customers to take advantage of the significant capacity in remote areas.

“Starlink is working to increase Internet capacity in dense urban areas in Africa as fast as possible. Please note that there is still significant capacity outside of city centres,” said Musk in a post to his X platform handle.

Which other areas did Starling halt subscriptions?

The company also stopped new sign-ups in several African urban centres. This was attributed to the increasing demand for internet service.

In Nairobi, the temporary suspension extended to surrounding areas like Kiambu and Machakos, as shown on the Starlink availability map.

Starlink noted a surge in the number of new subscribers in those regions which are currently at network capacity.

The increase in Starlink internet demand followed months of discounted offers for high-speed internet subscriptions.

In August 2024, the company introduced rental offers that allowed Kenyans to buy internet kits and pay monthly.

More to follow…