Vice President JD Vance hoped to expand his social media presence by creating an account on Bluesky. However, the launch on Wednesday started out stormy, as he was first suspended and then met with outrage from Democrats who consider the platform to be a “safe space” from conservative views.
Bluesky, created in 2019, gained popularity during the 2024 election and now has roughly 30 million users, according to Pew Research. It is a rival to X, which is owned by Elon Musk.
“Hello Bluesky, I’ve been told this app has become the place to go for common sense political discussion and analysis. So I’m thrilled to be here to engage with all of you,” Vance wrote in his first post.
Hello Bluesky, I’ve been told this app has become the place to go for common sense political discussion and analysis. So I’m thrilled to be here to engage with all of you.
— JD Vance (@jd-vance-1.bsky.social) June 18, 2025 at 4:50 PM
Twelve minutes later, Vance’s account was flagged as a possible impostor and taken down. Administrators quickly restored the page, and hateful comments against the vice president were posted almost immediately.
“It’s better if you just f*** off back to Twitter Nazi,” one user wrote in response to Vance’s first post.
“If this is the real Vance and not some bot account, you’re a traitor to this country and should be ashamed of the agendas you’re pushing. I honestly hope you spend the rest of your life rotting away in prison,” another user wrote.
Reporter Billy Binion wrote in a post on X that Bluesky does not “care about the real debate.”
“I can’t stand JD Vance. But suspending the sitting vice president is exactly why Bluesky is unserious & doomed to fail,” Binion added.
The reaction by liberals was mocked by conservatives on X.
Political commentator and podcast host Nick Sortor responded with a laughing emoji, “BlueCry banned the sitting VP for hurting their feelings.”
Jared Isaacman, the CEO of Shift4 and a former Trump nominee for NASA administrator, commented on X that suspending the vice president was keeping users in their echo chambers.
BLUESKY RESTORES VANCE’S ACCOUNT AFTER IMPOSTOR CONFUSION
In a statement to Newsweek, Bluesky said Vance’s account had initially been flagged as a possible impostor and was reinstated in under 20 minutes. The vice president’s account now has a verified badge to confirm its authenticity.
“We welcome the Vice President to join the conversation on Bluesky.”