Vice President JD Vance was briefly suspended from the social media platform Bluesky on Wednesday, just minutes after creating an account and publishing his first post.
“Hello Bluesky, I’ve been told this app has become the place to go for common sense political discussion and analysis,” Vance wrote in his opening message on the platform, a left-leaning alternative to X (formerly Twitter). “So I’m thrilled to be here to engage with all of you.”
In the same post, the vice president commented on a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld Tennessee’s restrictions on transgender medical treatments for minors.
“He argues that many of our so-called ‘experts’ have used bad arguments and substandard science to push experimental therapies on our youth,” the post continued. “I might add that many of those scientists are receiving substantial resources from big pharma to push these medicines on kids.”
Within 12 minutes of sharing the post, Vance’s account was suspended, according to Axios journalist Marc Caputo. The vice president had also announced his arrival on Bluesky via his official X account.
Visitors to his Bluesky profile were met with the message: “Not found. Account has been suspended.”
However, the suspension was swiftly reversed, and the account reinstated just minutes later. It does not appear that Vance’s post violated any of the platform’s published community guidelines.
Bluesky, which launched as a decentralised social media platform following Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, has seen a surge in popularity since President Trump’s 2024 election victory. According to the Pew Research Center, its user base tripled from 10 million to 30 million between November 2024 and May 2025, largely due to an exodus of liberal-leaning users from X in search of a more ideologically sympathetic space.
Several Bluesky users reacted angrily to Vance’s arrival, with some calling for his account to be blocked or reported. One user commented, “Don’t just block. Report the account and the posts.” Another wrote that they had reported the vice president’s post for “misinformation”.
Bluesky later clarified that the account was not suspended due to the post itself, but rather because of concerns it may have been operated by an 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,” a spokesperson for the platform said in a statement. “The account was quickly restored and verified so people can easily confirm its authenticity. We welcome the Vice President to join the conversation on Bluesky.”
