The day after the presidential election, the social media landscape shook.

On Elon Musk’s X, more than 115,000 users deactivated their accounts, the largest-ever mass exit from the platform. At the same time, traffic on Bluesky, a smaller rival to X, began to soar, with daily usage climbing some 500% in the U.S., according to data from Similarweb.

“We’ve been growing by about a million users a day for several days,” said Bluesky CEO Jay Graber in an interview with NPR on Monday. “It’s proving out the model that we thought would be the right approach to social [media]: Give people the tools to control their experience and they’ll have a better time.”

Putting more control in the hands of users is what distinguishes Bluesky from X, formerly Twitter, and other rival social media sites.

Rather than having one “master algorithm,” Bluesky allows for a more personalized experience. By default, there are three main feeds: One shows accounts you follow, another shows what your friends follow and a “discover” feed surfaces posts linked to your interests.

Bluesky allows users to reach beyond these three by developing their own customized algorithm for, say, just content about cats, or only posts about a sports team or type of music. Because of this customization, Graber says there are more than 50,000 different Bluesky feeds available.

And Bluesky, she argues, is “billionaire-proof,” since the company is not one centralized feed of content, but rather a “protocol” from which endless feeds can be created. Think of a protocol like email, or the internet itself, Graber says. It would be difficult for a single person or company to control it, since the underlying technology is open-sourced and maintained by many contributors, like Wikipedia.

“My concern with the internet is it’s just too controlled by a few powerful interests, and people don’t have the ability to control their own fate, so we wanted to build social [media] that’s built by the people, for the people,” Graber said.

Since Musk took over Twitter two years ago, the site has collapsed content guardrails, laid off more than 80% of employees and turned the site’s verification badges into a pay-to-play system where users can pay to amplify the reach of their posts. In the months leading up to the election, Musk, a major Trump donor, surrogate and now White House advisor, has used the platform to boost his support of the former president and promote right-wing views.

That, in turn, has led to a mass exodus — also dubbed the “X-odus.” For many, Bluesky has become a refuge.

While Bluesky’s utopian vision may sound appealing to those fed up with how Musk-promoting and partisan X has become, it is still a relatively tiny app, surpassing 20 million users on Tuesday, compared with the hundreds of millions on X and Meta-owned Threads, or the billions of users on Instagram and TikTok.

Analysts say Bluesky has also benefited from user frustration with other text-based social media apps. Threads, for example, has nearly 300 million monthly active users, benefitting from having built on top of Instagram, but Meta has de-emphasized news and politics from its social networks. That’s led users to complain about Threads being full of days-old posts and “engagement bait,” or purposefully controversial or outrage-inducing posts aimed at drawing responses.

Germany-based Mastodon, another X rival, requires users to navigate its many servers, known as “instances,” that make up its decentralized system. Confused yet? Some users are, and have given up before even starting. But others have stuck with it, resulting in a 50% bump in app downloads in the last month.

While Hollywood actors, politicians and some journalists have flocked to Bluesky, overall, it’s a relatively small community. It still has a scrappy upstart vibe to it, which fans say is part of its charm.

But social media researchers say major problems, like harassment, hate speech and misinformation, tend to flood platforms when any social media site gets large enough. In other words, the site may be in something of a sweet spot right now, but with more growth will come plenty of headaches.

“It’s small and you can curate a list of people who you find interesting and funny. It feels like Twitter from a decade ago,” said Dave Karpf, a media and public affairs professor at George Washington University and an early Bluesky adopter.

“It takes out the algorithmic, ‘The computer is going to tell you what you want and you better want it,'” Karpf said. “Instead, you pick who you want to talk and listen to and talk to them.”

It operates with a shoestring staff. In the wake of the election, as Bluesky’s full-time employees of 20 people worked around the clock to handle the rush of new users, its systems became, at times, rickety. The site wasn’t loading correctly for many and users reported other glitches, as the company adjusted to all the new interest.

“We had a bit of a rocky patch,” Graber said. “But that’s to be expected from being in the spotlight and getting so much growth.”

Jack Dorsey helped launch it, but he’s cut ties

Bluesky was originally a project backed by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, who in 2019 announced that Twitter would fund a “decentralized” social network that is not controlled by one person or company.

Around that time, Dorsey and other cryptocurrency enthusiasts were promoting a new vision of the future of the internet known as Web3, which was aimed at dismantling Big Tech’s “walled gardens,” or social networks and services run by individual companies, where accounts cannot leave and travel to another social network.

This vision often includes harnessing so-called blockchains, the technology behind cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, which is decentralized. In other words, no single entity has power over the system.

Dorsey tapped technologist Graber, now 33, to lead Bluesky. It became a public benefit corporation, a type of for-profit organization intended to place societal benefit over shareholder returns.

Bluesky started as an invite-only social media site. Earlier this year, it opened to the public.

Dorsey, has since cut ties with Bluesky and left its board, saying in an interview with venture capitalist Mike Solana that its speech rules were against his original vision of a site in which content is not policed in any way by moderators. Dorsey is now pushing an even smaller and more niche social media upstart known as Nostr, which describes itself as a “censorship-resistant” open source social network.

Bluesky CEO Graber said she has not heard from Dorsey in months.

“Jack [Dorsey] hasn’t been involved since he left the board,” Graber said. “And even when he was involved, he was not super involved.”

Dorsey, Musk and X did not return requests for comment.

No ads, no data mining. So how to survive?

Bluesky was launched with a grant from Twitter when Dorsey first announced the project, but it has never had any advertisements, which is how the vast majority of social media sites are funded. Officials at Bluesky say it has no plans of ever relying on ads.

Last month, Bluesky announced an additional round of venture capital funding, yet has never revealed a long-term way to make money.

Rose Wang, Bluesky’s chief operating officer, wrote in a post around the time of the new fundraising round that the company is working on a subscription model that will give users “premium” features, like the ability to upload higher-quality videos and customize profiles with avatars and new colors.

“Paid subscribers won’t get special treatment elsewhere in the app,” Wang wrote. “We won’t sell your data.”

The company doubled down on this promise last week, vowing to never tap user data to train artificial intelligence models.

Karpf said Bluesky is showing that it is charting a different path as a social media company, but, eventually, it will have to devise a way to pay its bills if it wants to keep expanding.

“It’s pretty cheap to run overall,” Karpf said. “But with all that growth, eventually they need to figure out: All right, how do we pay for the service? How do we pay our employees? How do we sustain this growth?”

What keeps a president busy after he leaves the White House?

For former President Bill Clinton, who served two terms from 1993 to 2001, it’s been philanthropy, family and the occasional foray back into politics.

He dives into the past almost 24 years of his post-presidency life in his new memoir, Citizen: My Life After the White House, out now. The memoir takes its title from Clinton’s farewell address to the nation.

“I will never hold a position higher or a covenant more sacred than that of president of the United States. But there is no title I will wear more proudly than that of citizen,” Clinton said in 2001.

The cover of former President Bill Clinton’s book, Citizen: My Life After the White House.

Penguin Random House

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Penguin Random House

The former president writes about his philanthropic work across the globe through the Clinton Foundation, working with Nelson Mandela to get treatment for people with HIV and helping free two journalists jailed in North Korea.

Clinton spoke to Morning Edition host Leila Fadel, who asked him what it was like to transition from president of a global superpower to a citizen.

“You know, I had to learn how to do a lot of things all over again,” Clinton said. “And I was determined to keep living in the present and living for the future so that I didn’t spend any time wishing I was still president.”

Clinton also spoke about life after the presidency, the state of the country, how Democrats can win back voters and his legacy.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Leila Fadel: You’re credited with breathing new life into the Democratic Party in the ’90s, following the Reagan Revolution. What would you say Democrats need to do to start winning again and winning these voters who feel like they can’t make ends meet and life isn’t great for them?

Bill Clinton: I’d say we can’t keep asserting that things are great in the economy. In some senses they are great. But we’re saddled with some cost of living challenges, which are not unique to the United States. But it’s pretty hard if you’re out there in the middle of the country and you’re working hard and you’ve got two or three kids and you have to watch every penny you make. And the economic benefits of the current recovery have been widely shared where it has stuck. But it takes a while for people everywhere in the country to feel the benefits. People are not economic engines alone. There’s a lot of identity conflicts racing through our society now, through our world. And these culture war topics still have enormous salience. And we Democrats have to learn to talk to people.

Clinton on addressing some of the controversies in his life in this book, including the way he felt the press unfairly treated his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, when she ran for president in 2016 over her handling of official emails.

Clinton: I believe that it’s laid out in my book not because I wanted to relitigate it, but because I wanted to let it go and I couldn’t let it go if nobody ever collected all the facts and put them in one place.

Fadel: Do you feel like there are lots of moments like that in the book that you felt like, “I need to write this down, I need to talk about this and I need to let it go.”

Clinton: Anything that was about anything negative, if I thought there would be questions asked and I would think, “well, maybe I ought not to wait for people to ask questions.” I’ll just say what I got to say.

Fadel: That included one of the most difficult parts of your presidency where you address the relationship you had with Monica Lewinsky. And you said, “I live with it all the time.” What did you mean?

Clinton: It was a terrible time for my whole family, and I’d like to let it go. But I still had to live with it because other people didn’t want it to be dropped and because it was a problem. So I just thought, “well, this is a chance to say what I have to say about that.” I felt the same way about other issues. If I hadn’t said anything, my critics would say, “Well, he didn’t say anything about that.” But I was afraid all the way along, because look how far we are into this conversation and how little we’ve talked about, how I spent the lion’s share of the last 24 years working with my foundation, working on AIDS and building the Clinton Global Initiative.

Fadel: One of the things that President-elect Trump took aim at was the North American Free Trade Agreement, which some point to as the reason for the widening inequities that the U.S. is in today over the trade barriers and reduced tariffs. What brought the U.S. to this place of this deep distrust and anger over jobs going abroad and feeling like unions are not respected?

Clinton: It’s easy to say that NAFTA was wrong. But the truth is, if you look at the agreement we’ve got today, it’s just basically an updated version of NAFTA.

Fadel: The one that Trump renegotiated during his presidency.

Clinton: Yeah, but it was high time. NAFTA negotiated in the late ’90s. If you look at what’s actually in this deal, they updated it, but it led to today. Who are our biggest trading partners? Canada and Mexico. We still have a high level of hemispheric cooperation and we can’t get an orderly solution to the border without cooperation from Mexico. And I feel what really happened with the trade war was that we quit enforcing the agreements as vigorously as I think they should have been enforced. And then we were too optimistic, if you will, about what would happen over the long run with China.

Fadel: Your wife ran for president and lost. We watched Vice President Kamala Harris run for president and lose. Is the U.S. not ready or not willing to elect a woman?

Clinton: I think if Hillary had been the nominee in 2008, she would have won easily as President Obama did, because the Bush administration was at a low point over the Iraq war and other things. I believe that we have become more socially conservative now. The most important thing for people to remember about any political dispute or any global question is something that I’m very proud of, which is finishing the sequencing of the human genome. I spent $3 billion of American taxpayers money to get the first print. And the most important thing we learned is that every non age-related difference, including gender, body shape and size, hair color–you name it–every difference is found in one half of one percent of our genome. And yet we spend 99 and a half percent of our time worrying about that half a percent. You can, you know, decorate it up with anything, but I so hope that we can stop the killing in Gaza. I hope it’ll happen. We all have to go on. You have to go on tomorrow. I have to go on.

Fadel: This book is laced with moments you reached across the aisle as president and as citizen. Is that bipartisan work still possible today?

If we live in a world where the only political strategy that works is a polarizing, damning, you-don’t-count strategy, where the only thing that counts is loyalty – that is another word and path to total obedience. Don’t ask questions. Now it’s just a winner take all. Take the blood off the ground. So I keep trying in my limited way as I age and struggle on to make a positive difference. I still am very optimistic. I bet you’ll be surprised about where we’ll be in eight years.

Fadel: You said you went back to work after the election and you got back to work. What did you tell your staff? And in the 24 years since being president, what would you say is the most important thing that you’ve done as a citizen or the thing that you wanted to do as a citizen?

Well, first, when I told my staff and my friends that we had clearly lost the election and we wanted to set a good example, but I believe that it would give us a new opportunity to make a difference in the non-governmental sector, because I think the purpose of a lot of this work by ordinary citizens is to fill the gap that is always there between what the private sector can produce and what the government will provide. You got to figure out what are you going to do now? And here’s what I think we ought to do.

Fadel: You talked about how you’re the longest living member of your family over three generations. You get to be with your grandkids. I wanted to know what it’s like to buck this trend in your family.

Clinton: I feel lucky. It’s so interesting. You know, other people have a totally different take. I read a wonderful article that Hillary sent me. It was in one of the papers about a marriage of a 98-year old-man to a 96-year-old woman in a senior living center in Austin. They had just gotten married and they were both spry and happy. And I thought, “God, that’s great.” It makes me feel like I need to keep doing stuff or maybe I need to get out of the way so Hillary can do it. There’s an old joke that goes “If I’d known I was going to live this long, I would’ve taken better care of myself.” I’m glad that I did. I don’t obsess about it anymore. But I have realized that it’s been sort of rooting’ around in the back of my head and was driving me a lot when I was younger, made me more almost hyperactive.

Fadel: Maybe it was behind some of your ambition, getting things done as quickly as you could.

Clinton: Yeah, there’s no doubt about it. It led to a lot of good things. Most of the mistakes I made in my life happened when I was so tired I could hardly lift my arms because I always thought I should do more. And this is something I’ve learned. I sleep better at night now.

The radio version of this story was produced by Ana Perez and edited by Adriana Gallardo. The digital was adapted Obed Manuel.

Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina is defending a measure she recently introduced that would ban transgender women from women’s bathrooms in the U.S. Capitol.

It is unclear if the effort will get a vote or if rules in the Capitol will be changed, but the move comes just two weeks after Democrat Sarah McBride became the first openly transgender person elected to Congress.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Mace characterized this specific measure as an attempt to protect women’s rights.

“I know how vulnerable women and girls are in private spaces,” she said. “So I’m absolutely, 100 percent, going to stand in the way of any man who wants to be in a women’s restroom, in our locker rooms, in our changing rooms, I will be there fighting you every step of the way.”

But when asked if McBride’s arrival was the catalyst, Mace was clear.

“Yes and absolutely and then some,” she said.

Republicans have increasingly amplified anti-trans messaging in recent years and it’s morphed into a common political talking point. Now, the conversation is playing out within the halls of Congress.

McBride responded to the legislation in a Monday night post on X.

“We should be focused on bringing down the cost of housing, health care, and child care, not manufacturing culture wars,” McBride wrote. “Delawareans sent me here to make the American dream more affordable and accessible and that’s what I’m focused on.”

McBride, who won Delaware’s lone house seat earlier this month, said in her victory speech that she “ran not to make history but to make a difference.”

Shortly after, she spoke to NPR about her plans for legislating across the aisle, which she said starts by moving “past the issues that are in the headlines, that are trending on social media.”

“I know that’s going to be more difficult in D.C. than it has been in Dover, but I truly believe that when we give up on that openness to collaborate, we ultimately give up on our ability to have a democracy,” McBride added.

How Republican members of Congress are reacting

Firebrand conservative Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia was quick to praise Mace’s measure publicly.

“America is fed up with the trans ideology being shoved into our face,” Greene told reporters on Tuesday. “Women have been the victim of this garbage for long enough.”

A measure governing access to facilities in the House would only need a simple majority within the House of Representatives in order to take effect — no Senate passage or presidential signature required. However, Republicans hold a razor thin majority in the House and will narrowly control the chamber again next year – meaning they can’t afford to lose many votes in order to get bills passed.

In order to get the measure through without a vote, Mace has alternatively lobbied for putting it in the House rules package, a move she said House Speaker Mike Johnson agreed with.

“And if he doesn’t then I will file a privilege motion to force a vote on it,” Mace added. “This is the last war on women and I aim to stop it.”

During a press conference with House Republican leadership, Johnson did not confirm whether he would include it in the rules package and instead struck a more united tone.

“We don’t look down upon anyone. We treat everybody with dignity and respect,” Johnson said. “We’ll provide appropriate accommodation for every member of Congress.”

Other House Republicans have pushed back, arguing members instead focus on pressing policy issues before the end of the term.

“I’m not getting involved in a bathroom debate. It’s not what I came to Congress for,” said Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla. “We ought to be doing disaster relief and appropriations bills.”

Republicans campaigned in part on limiting transgender rights

While voters consistently listed immigration and the economy as their top concerns this election season, Republican candidates — from President-elect Donald Trump to House and Senate hopefuls — spent a lot of time and money focusing on trans issues and seeking to portray Democrats as too extreme.

The Trump campaign ran ads against Vice President Harris using the statement, “Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you.”

Trump has repeatedly addressed transgender rights, saying that under his tenure public schools, hospitals and health care providers will no longer receive federal funding if they promote ideas about gender transitioning or perform gender-affirming surgeries or care to minors (which 25 states have passed laws barring).

The 2024 GOP platform also lists “Keep Men Out of Women’s Sports” as one of its 20 promises.

A number of prominent House Democrats have spoken out about Mace’s proposal and several party leaders criticized it during their press conference on Tuesday.

“What they are talking about there on day one is where one member out of 435… is going to use the bathroom,” said Rep. Katherine Clark, D-Mass., who serves as House minority whip. “That is their focus.”