Bluesky adds Techdirt founder Mike Masnick to its board

Decentralized X competitor Bluesky, a startup offering a social network where users can choose their own algorithm and moderation services, announced on Monday the addition of a new board member, Mike Masnick. Best known as the founder of tech blog Techdirt, Masnick is also credited with inspiring the Bluesky project through his paper titled “Protocols, not Platforms.“

According to a company blog post, the team was already leaning on Masnick for advice, so adding him to the board is a “natural next step” in formalizing their relationship.

Originally incubated within Twitter under founder Jack Dorsey’s leadership, Bluesky later spun out of Twitter (now rebranded as X under Elon Musk) and has charted its own path as an independent company. That includes raising a seed round last year and rolling out its first paid service for helping people set up custom domains on the decentralized platform.

Though Bluesky had the support of Dorsey in its earlier days, the former Twitter CEO later came to publicly criticize the startup for making the same mistakes he and others made at Twitter, especially in terms of how it handled some of its earlier moderation issues.

In May, Dorsey left his position on Bluesky’s board, and he now devotes more of his energy to Nostr, another decentralized network popular with Bitcoin proponents like himself.

With the addition of Masnick, Bluesky fills its board opening as the now 6-million-user-strong social network continues to develop its platform and policies, as well as the technology that powers its efforts, the AT Protocol.

The company says it will tap into Masnick’s expertise as a reporter, editor and publisher, in addition to gaining insights from his familiarity with policy, technology and legal issues it may face as it grows.

“Mike’s work has been an inspiration to us from the start,” said Bluesky CEO Jay Graber in a statement. “Having him join our board feels like a natural progression of our shared vision for a more open internet. His perspective will help ensure we’re building something that truly serves users as we continue to evolve Bluesky and the AT Protocol.”

“I’m excited to join the Bluesky board and to support its vision of building an open social network,” Masnick said. “Over the last few years, I’ve been thrilled to see how the Bluesky team has turned these ideas into reality, and I look forward to helping the company continue to build a better internet.”