Vice President JD Vance’s venture onto Bluesky was cut short Wednesday, with his account suspended less than 20 minutes after he announced joining.
The platform quickly reversed its decision but it raised renewed scrutiny over its moderation practices, particularly given Bluesky’s origins as a project aimed at resisting centralized control and promoting free expression online.
Vance announced X, formerly Twitter: “Just set up my page on @bluesky, hope to see you guys there!”
That enthusiasm was swiftly extinguished. Attempts to access his Bluesky profile soon returned a message stating: “Account has been suspended.”
Before the suspension, Vance shared his excitement about engaging with the Bluesky community. In a likely sarcastic tone, Vance posted: “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.”
He followed with remarks on a subject involving medical treatment for transgender youth, citing a judicial opinion: “I found Justice Thomas’s concurrence on medical care for transgender youth quite illuminating. He argues that many of our so-called “experts” have used bad arguments and substandard science to push experimental therapies on our youth.” Vance added, “I might add that many of those scientists are receiving substantial resources from big pharma to push these medicines on kids. What do you think?”
Initially conceived as a decentralized initiative funded by Twitter under Jack Dorsey’s leadership, the project was envisioned as a means to insulate users from the sweeping moderation powers of large tech platforms.
Its foundational ethos emphasized freedom of expression, user sovereignty, and resistance to censorship.
Yet the platform that emerged from those ambitions has taken a sharply different path.
Dorsey has since left the platform after disagreeing with the direction it’s going.
Rather than fostering diverse viewpoints, Bluesky increasingly cultivates a narrow range of acceptable opinions, enforced through vague rules and swift suspensions. Users who question prevailing narratives or voice dissenting perspectives often find themselves ousted.
