Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Arun Shah™

@arunshah240.bsky.social

South African Legandarcy cricketer Faf du plessis in Everest base camp

December 21, 2025 at 11:44 AM

Reposted by Arun Shah™

bskycheck.com

@bskycheck.com

📈 22.2K new users joined Bluesky yesterday (↘ 11.4% from previous day)

Bluesky still attracts new users despite minor fluctuations.

www.bskycheck.com

Daily growth stats for Bluesky. Yesterday 22,237 users added, growth vs previous day -11.4%

December 21, 2025 at 6:25 AM

Arun Shah™

@arunshah240.bsky.social

The secret is to love the walking, not just the destination. So, whatever your goal is, do it in a way you enjoy.

December 20, 2025 at 9:28 AM

Reposted by Arun Shah™

bskycheck.com

@bskycheck.com

📈 25.1K new users joined Bluesky yesterday (↘ 5.4% from previous day)

Overall activity remains stable with typical variation.

www.bskycheck.com

Daily growth stats for Bluesky. Yesterday 25,104 users added, growth vs previous day -5.4%

December 20, 2025 at 6:25 AM

Reposted by Arun Shah™

Laurens

@laurenshof.online

Threads is effectively shelving their fediverse integration, after it saw marginally little use

Zuck has played the game well, harming both open protocol movements while growing his platform, getting good PR and distracting regulators

connectedplaces.online/reports/fedi...

My take is that Meta and Threads have played the game well. They immediately capitalised on the moment in 2023 when decentralisation and Twitter-alternatives got large-scale attention, and knew how to say the right buzzwords to ride the wave. It got them in the right light for regulators, and gave them something tangible to point out to say ‘hey we’re doing interoperability now!’. The fediverse turned out to be highly vulnerable to such a strategy, a sitting duck for Big Tech companies to pluck some good PR from. That it turned the fediverse against itself, resulting in vicious and endless arguments about whether servers should block Threads, and whether Threads joining the fediverse validated the movement, was only a nice bonus. By slowly rolling out an implementation over the years Threads built their own positive-PR machine, every slight update worthy of a new article that put ‘Meta’ and ‘Interoperability’ in the headlines again. That nobody ever really used the integration between Threads and the fediverse never really seemed to matter, only the hypothetical future mattered. Nor did the press seem particularly interested in reporting on the fact that marginally few people seemed to be using the connection between the fediverse and Threads. Still, the company found itself a place at the table for protocol conversations about ActivityPub, which might pay dividend in the future if the need arises.

GGWP to Mark Zuckerberg and Adam Mosseri, for the skillful execution that helped Meta significantly, nestled themselves into the fediverse were it ever to become useful again, and taking some of the wind out of Bluesky’s sails as well as a bonus.

December 19, 2025 at 6:13 PM

Reposted by Arun Shah™

bskycheck.com

@bskycheck.com

December 19, 2025 at 4:26 PM

Reposted by Arun Shah™

TechCrunch

@techcrunch.com

The ChatGPT maker is aiming to raise the funding by the end of the first quarter in 2026, and the company may ask sovereign wealth funds to invest in the round.

OpenAI is reportedly trying to raise $100B at an $830B valuation | TechCrunch

The ChatGPT maker is aiming to raise the funding by the end of the first quarter in 2026, and the company may ask sovereign wealth funds to invest in the round.

techcrunch.com

December 19, 2025 at 1:38 PM

Arun Shah™

@arunshah240.bsky.social

Bluesky CEO @jay.bsky.team interview with Rabble.

youtube.com/watch?v=p0O4...

Decentralized Social Media for 40 Million+ Users (with Bluesky’s Jay Graber)

YouTube video by revolution.social with @rabble

youtube.com

December 19, 2025 at 1:42 PM

Arun Shah™

@arunshah240.bsky.social

Wiz Khalifa has been sentenced to 9 months in jail in Romania for smoking cannabis on stage.

December 19, 2025 at 7:58 AM

Reposted by Arun Shah™

Paul Frazee

@pfrazee.com

Ah that's crazy, it's almost like Threads picked up the decentralization messaging when they launched so they could neutralize the Atmosphere

sources.news/p/whats-next...

The fediverse is on maintenance mode
Threads still supports federation with other apps like Mastodon, but Hayes was clear that it’s not a top priority for the current roadmap. “It’s something that we’re supporting, it’s something that we’re maintaining, but it’s not the thing that we’re talking about that’s gonna help the app break out,” he said.
“As someone who has built a zillion consumer products, it’s just really hard to keep these divergent platforms and products consistent on the same protocol over time,” he explained. “There’s always going to be the trade-offs that these companies are thinking about of how much energy do I want to pour into compatibility with this ecosystem versus iterating on this thing I’m building and seeing what’s valuable.”

December 19, 2025 at 12:01 AM

Arun Shah™

@arunshah240.bsky.social

As garbage continues to pile up, Nepal Government has now introduced its first comprehensive five-year Everest Cleaning Action Plan to control pollution, manage climbing waste, and protect the mountain’s fragile environment.

December 19, 2025 at 6:45 AM

Reposted by Arun Shah™

bskycheck.com

@bskycheck.com

📈 26.5K new users joined Bluesky yesterday (↗ 18.8% from previous day)

Growth remains positive with reliable daily signups.

www.bskycheck.com

Daily growth stats for Bluesky. Yesterday 26,534 users added, growth vs previous day +18.8%

December 19, 2025 at 6:25 AM

Reposted by Arun Shah™

Enraged Liberal Dude

@enragedliberaldude.bsky.social

I’ll wait til it’s up and running.

December 19, 2025 at 6:27 AM

Arun Shah™

@arunshah240.bsky.social

Twitter.new cross 150k handle request

#Twitter

December 19, 2025 at 5:57 AM

Reposted by Arun Shah™

AppleInsider

@appleinsider.com

TikTok in the United States is about to see significant change as a new US-based algorithm is introduced in the name of "protecting Americans' data and US National Security."

US investors to close deal on 50% ownership of TikTok January 22

TikTok in the United States is about to see significant change as a new US-based algorithm is introduced in the name of "protecting Americans' data and US National Security."

appleinsider.com

December 19, 2025 at 2:25 AM

Reposted by Arun Shah™

Social Media Today

@socialmediatoday.bsky.social

The effort to revive Twitter could be over already

X Updates Terms to Counter ‘operation Bluebird’ Twitter Replica

Elon Musk's X has moved to end an effort to revive the Twitter branding.

www.socialmediatoday.com

December 18, 2025 at 10:37 AM

Reposted by Arun Shah™

Mark Jaffe, 5 Bridges Law

@markjkings.bsky.social

Which means you can directly link from X Corp's complaint -> Ars Technica story -> my firm's website -> my son's nighttime photo of the Bay Bridge
5bridgeslaw.com

December 17, 2025 at 9:23 PM

Reposted by Arun Shah™

bskycheck.com

@bskycheck.com

📈 22.3K new users joined Bluesky yesterday (↘ 4.3% from previous day)

Daily registrations are holding fairly steady.

www.bskycheck.com

Daily growth stats for Bluesky. Yesterday 22,333 users added, growth vs previous day -4.3%

December 18, 2025 at 6:25 AM

Arun Shah™

@arunshah240.bsky.social

WOW ICC Giving Priority to Nepal: The International Cricket Council (ICC) today announced the release of an Expression of Interest (EOI) for Media Rights in Nepal for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026.