The White House and several other government agencies on Friday joined the social network Bluesky, a platform generally considered left-leaning and popular among users who have left X (formerly Twitter).
This debut immediately caused a strong negative reaction from the platform’s user base. The White House account has been blocked by about 92,000 accounts, while only having 10,000 followers, according to ClearSky, an independent tracker of Bluesky’s blocking statistics.
Another popular political figure and Vice President of the United States, JD Vance, had 166,000 accounts blocked. He joined the platform in June and is the most blocked user on the platform, followed by the White House.
By Sunday morning, newly opened government accounts from the Trump administration occupied all of the top five spots for the most blocked accounts in the past 24 hours.
What was the White House’s first contribution?
In its first post, the White House account uploaded a highlight reel of Trump shots and memes, along with a message that read: “What’s up Bluesky? We thought you might have missed some of our greatest hits, so we put it together for you.”
The Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Homeland Security also launched Bluesky accounts on Friday.
Bluesky is a relatively small platform compared to more established online spaces like X. Disgruntled users began flocking to the site after billionaire Elon Musk took over Twitter in 2022.
How did platform users react to their debut?
Shortly after the Trump administration’s debut, users began flooding the White House’s first post, pointing out Trump’s relationship with notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“The reason they’re going after this place is because they can’t control the people on it and it’s driving them crazy,” Onion CEO Ben Collins wrote.
While American comedian and actor Paul F Tomkins wrote in a post that it was “weirdly fun to block the White House”. Several other popular figures on the platform urged their followers to simply block all Trump administration profiles and move on.
