Bluesky Part 3: All Your Data Are Belong to Us

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It feels like I just got done writing about how Bluesky will probably never be it (when I was a lot more enamored with Nostr than I currently am), and then some news dropped a few days ago that initially went under my radar, but is apparently a little bit bigger than it originally seemed. Remember how I keep talking about corporations and social media, and how corporations don’t know how to run social platforms? Yeah, well, that holds true today. And this time, it’s, unsurprisingly, in regards to Bluesky. It’s not as serious as Meta hiring an actual, literal fascist to oversee their public policies, but it still sucks.

Granted, I kind of abandoned using Bluesky as a main platform a long time ago. Back when you still needed an access pass to get in, and everyone treated it like it was some kind of exclusive club consisting of some of the worst people you never wanted to know when you were still on Twitter. And then Twitter had a mass exodus, and they didn’t open the doors, and then Twitter had another mass exodus, and they didn’t open the doors, and then Twitter had yet another mass exodus, and while they refused to open the doors to the public, Threads took in over one hundred million people.

I bet they’re cursing themselves double-hard, as they pretend that holding an access key that reports back to their own servers is somehow decentralization, or that by using Bluesky, users are in control of their own data (even though I have never seen a single iota of evidence that would make this true). In fact, it seems like the developers behind Bluesky might just have ulterior motives when it comes to data, or, let’s just be Frank here, your data.

Okay, okay, I’ve riffed on these points enough, and you don’t need to call me Frank.

A day ago, the official Bluesky account announced that they were partnering with some company I’ve never heard of, Buffer.

We're thrilled to announce that Bluesky has partnered with Buffer, a social media toolkit with scheduling and cross-posting features, to make posting to Bluesky even easier! Learn how to connect your Bluesky account and schedule your posts on Buffer here: buffer.com/bluesky

[image or embed]

— Bluesky (@bsky.app) Jul 30, 2024 at 11:00 AM

On the surface, it looks like some brand-oriented social media tool to make Bluesky look more attractive to influencers and corporate accounts. Which … is in and of itself kinda, meh. Like, why do you want those types infesting your platform? Have you seen Threads?

But it goes a bit deeper than that.

You know that company that’s been scraping the whole entire internet and stealing all of our content without asking for permission, and then going on talk shows and media talking about how it’s totally cool and they don’t care. They’ll do what they want.

You know them, they’re uh …

OpenAI.

Buffer is associated with OpenAI.

From their own website:

The Buffer AI Assistant uses advanced algorithms and machine learning techniques to analyze trends and patterns in social media data, and generates ideas based on that information. Buffer’s AI Assistant is based on OpenAI’s proprietary API

So, let me get this totally straight. The Bluesky devs thought it would be a great idea to partner up with a company that, obviously, needs access to all of a user’s data in order to function in the way that it does. And, with use of Buffer’s AI assistant, that “analyzes trends and patterns in social media data” (I love how this is worded ambiguously so it’s completely unclear what social media data they’re talking about, and how it’s acquired), you can … uhm, create unique posts? That, what? Draw in more clicks? Sound like frikken’ garbage? Make you look like an inauthentic tool-bag?

And all of this is based on OpenAI’s tech? You know, that thing that continues to rip literally everyone off? Stealing and rebranding and twisting your words, your art, your music, while the board of directors sit around with shit-eating grins on their faces, every single time someone invites them to put a face to their names?

Bluesky: Decentralization, but not really. And also, user ownership of data, but not really. Uh, we own it, and now also so does OpenAI.

Not only are corporations bad for social media, but even when presented with a friendly face, giving off vibes of open platforms, and open source tech, you still cannot trust them. Do not trust a corporate-minded bunch of fools to facilitate a place for you to connect with others, and expect them to not quietly undermine your privacy and right to not have your data stolen and used for profit.

And I’ll say it for the hundredth time: You should have your own website. You should find a decent Mastodon server. You should get off of corporate social media, or at least create a silo for yourself in the aforementioned places, just in case. If you do anything worth saving, worth backing up, worth keeping, you definitely shouldn’t only have it on these platforms that are eating your data, and using new age fascists to write policies (see: Threads & Project 2025).

I think I’ve said most of my piece here, but man, I cannot wait until the next reveal. When they come out of the woodwork with some friendly sounding post where they admit to all of their users that they’ve been training AI on everything you’ve ever posted (this isn’t yet known to be true, but admit it, you know they probably are).