At SXSW 2025, Bluesky CEO Jay Graber made a striking fashion statement that echoed her company’s vision of a decentralized, open-source social network.
While Graber’s large black T-shirt and simple bun might have seemed like a casual look at first, a closer inspection revealed a deliberate, pointed message aimed at Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Zuckerberg, known for his larger-than-life persona, has compared himself to the Roman emperor Julius Caesar, even wearing a shirt emblazoned with the phrase “Aut Zuck aut nihil,” a twist on the Latin phrase “Aut Caesar aut nihil,” which translates to “Either Caesar or nothing.” In a bold contrast, Graber’s shirt bore the phrase “Mundus sine caesaribus,” meaning “A world without Caesars.”
This subtle jab at Zuckerberg’s centralised vision of the social network world is not just a fashion statement — it reflects Bluesky’s foundational principles.
Photo: META
Bluesky, an open-source, decentralised social network, stands in direct opposition to the centralised model that platforms like Facebook operate under. The company’s design allows users to access the underlying code and have transparency in how the platform evolves. Graber emphasised this point during her keynote at SXSW, explaining that Bluesky’s open-source structure provides users with the power to create alternatives if the network ever becomes too controlled or changes in a way that users do not agree with.
“If a billionaire came in and bought Bluesky, or took it over, or if I decided tomorrow to change things in a way that people really didn’t like, then they could fork off and go on to another application,” Graber explained. “There’s already applications in the network that give you another way to view the network, or you could build a new one as well. And so that openness guarantees that there’s always the ability to move to a new alternative.”
This level of openness and control is what sets Bluesky apart from traditional social media platforms like Meta, which have faced backlash for their changes to user experience. Meta’s controversial updates, such as using public user posts to train AI and scaling back third-party fact-checking, have driven many users to seek alternatives, with Bluesky benefiting from these shifts in user sentiment.
However, Bluesky still has a long road ahead if it aims to challenge the dominance of Meta, which boasts over 3.35 billion daily active users across Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook. In contrast, Bluesky is nearing 33 million users, a significant but small fraction of Meta’s global user base. Yet, Graber’s platform has created a cultural footprint that suggests it will persist and grow, even in the face of Meta’s overwhelming reach.
In this context, the term “open source” refers to decentralized networks like Bluesky, where the platform’s underlying code is publicly accessible. This open-source approach allows anyone to use, modify, and distribute the code freely. Users gain more control and transparency, a stark contrast to proprietary platforms like Meta, where users are often subject to changes imposed by the company. If users disagree with changes on Bluesky, they can “fork” the network (create a new version) or even build entirely new applications that still interact with the original platform, offering them greater freedom and flexibility compared to closed, centralized systems.
While Bluesky is still in its infancy, its commitment to openness and decentralization is reshaping the social media landscape. It may not yet rival Meta’s reach, but it offers a new, user-centric model that could one day challenge the centralized social media empire built by Zuckerberg. As Graber’s shirt boldly declares, a world without “Caesars” might just be the future of social networks.
