Jay Graber is stepping down as the CEO of Bluesky and will transition to the role of chief innovation officer at the social media platform.

Graber, who was named to lead Bluesky in 2021, will be replaced by advisor Toni Schneider as interim CEO, she said in a blog posted to the company’s website.

Bluesky, with more than 40 million users, was one of the apps looking to be an alternative to the platform formerly known as Twitter after Elon Musk’s takeover of the company.

It was started by Jack Dorsey as a project within Twitter in 2019 and was set up as an independent company in 2021.

Schneider, the former CEO of Automattic and a partner at True Ventures, has been an investor and advisor to Bluesky for the past two years.

Bluesky’s board has begun a search for a permanent CEO.

Bluesky saw an influx of users in November 2024 as people fled X, formerly called Twitter, after Donald Trump was elected U.S. President and a change to the terms of service threatened to complicate legal challenges for the Elon Musk-owned platform.

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(Reporting by Juby Babu in Mexico City)