Elon Musk suffers social media dig as JD Vance joins X rival Bluesky
US Vice President JD Vance has joined X rival Bluesky and called upon his more than four million followers to join him on the alternative social media platform.
Vance signed up for Bluesky on Wednesday and shared screenshots of his post on X.
'Just set up my page on @bluesky, hope to see you guys there!' Vance wrote on X.
'Hello Bluesky, I've been told this app has become the place to go for common sense political discussion and analysis,' the vice president wrote in his first post on the platform.
'I'm thrilled to be here to engage with all of you.'
But shortly after, the vice president's Bluesky account was briefly suspended, according to US media.
A user on the platform – favoured by progressives opposed to President Donald Trump and seeking refuge from X's perceived toxicity and right-wing bias – gleefully posted that it was the 'quickest block ever.'
Vance has not commented on the suspension, and his account was swiftly restored.
A Bluesky spokesperson told Newsweek that the vice president's account was removed because their system flagged it as a potential impersonator.
'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,' Bluesky said, according to the US outlet.
'The account was quickly restored and verified so people can easily confirm its authenticity.'
Bluesky in April introduced blue checks to accounts that have been verified to confirm users are who they claim to be.
'We welcome the Vice President to join the conversation on Bluesky,' the company added.
X and Bluesky have not made public the number of active users of their platforms for several months. But according to analyst estimates and marketing data, X had around 600 million active users in early 2025, while Bluesky had about 30 million.
JD Vance, whose Bluesky followers now exceed 6 000, also posted his praise of conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas's recent concurring opinion on medical care for transgender youth, calling it 'quite illuminating.'
The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a law banning gender-affirming medical treatments for transgender minors – an issue at the heart of the American culture wars.
Bluesky was founded by Jack Dorsey in 2019, who co-founded and led Twitter as chief executive until its 2022 acquisition by South Africa-born billionaire Elon Musk who renamed the popular platform X.
Musk, a former top advisor to Trump, has since transformed X into the go-to platform for conservatives, but the president himself remains an infrequent user, preferring his own Truth Social platform for communication.
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Subscribe to The South African website's newsletters and follow us on WhatsApp, Facebook, X and Bluesky for the latest news.
By Garrin Lambley © Agence France-Presse
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