U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance has officially joined Bluesky, a rising alternative to X (formerly Twitter), and is encouraging his more than four million followers to follow him there.
Vance created his Bluesky account on Wednesday, sharing a screenshot on X with the caption:
“Just set up my page on @bluesky, hope to see you guys there!”
In his first post on the platform, Vance wrote:
“Hello Bluesky, I’ve been told this app has become the place to go for common sense political discussion and analysis. I’m thrilled to be here to engage with all of you.”
However, his debut was disrupted just minutes later when his account was briefly suspended. Users on Bluesky — a platform favored by many progressives — were quick to react. One user mocked the incident as the “quickest block ever.”
Vance did not publicly respond, but the account was swiftly restored and verified. Bluesky later clarified the suspension was due to automated security filters.
“Vice President Vance’s account was briefly flagged by our automated systems that try to detect impersonation attempts, which have targeted public figures like him in the past,” a Bluesky spokesperson told Newsweek.
“The account was quickly restored and verified so people can easily confirm its authenticity.”
In April, Bluesky launched its own verification system—similar to blue checkmarks—to help users confirm real identities and avoid impersonators.
Bluesky was founded in 2019 by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey and has gained popularity, especially after Elon Musk’s 2022 acquisition of Twitter and its rebranding to X. While X still boasts an estimated 600 million users, Bluesky has grown to around 30 million, appealing mostly to users seeking alternatives to what they view as X’s rightward shift under Musk.
Vance’s activity on Bluesky hasn’t stopped at social media migration. He also posted support for conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s recent concurring opinion in a ruling that upheld a ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors.
“Justice Thomas’s analysis of the science and logic behind these treatments is quite illuminating,” Vance wrote — reflecting his ongoing engagement in America’s culture wars.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump, despite being one of X’s most controversial past users, remains mostly active on his own platform, Truth Social.
