Vice President JD Vance’s debut on the liberal-leaning social media platform Bluesky was cut short Wednesday evening when his account was abruptly suspended within an hour of his first post. The suspension, which Bluesky attributed to an automated error, lasted roughly 20 minutes before the account was reinstated with a verified badge.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Bluesky claimed the platform’s automated systems had flagged the official account — jd-vance-1.bsky.social — due to prior impersonation attempts involving the vice president’s name. "There have been many past attempts to impersonate Vice President JD Vance... the account was flagged as part of that pattern," the company said. It added that the suspension was reversed quickly and the verified badge was issued to confirm authenticity moving forward.
Despite the technical explanation, the suspension sparked immediate backlash online, especially among conservatives who have long criticized Bluesky as a censorship-heavy enclave for progressive users disaffected by Elon Musk’s leadership of X (formerly Twitter). Vance’s decision to join the platform came as a surprise, given its ideological reputation, but he approached it with a tone of engagement.
“Hello Bluesky,” Vance posted at 4:50 p.m. Wednesday. “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.”
Attached to the post was a screenshot from Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s concurring opinion in United States v. Skrmetti, a ruling that upheld Tennessee’s ban on sex-change surgeries for minors. Thomas’s opinion argued that the medical field lacks a consensus on treating gender dysphoria in children and accused some practitioners of letting ideology and poor science drive treatment protocols.
Vance expanded on Thomas’s points in subsequent posts, stating, “I found Justice Thomas's concurrence on medical care for transgender youth quite illuminating,” and questioning the role of pharmaceutical funding in the promotion of experimental therapies for minors. “What do you think?” he asked followers.
That inquiry was met not with replies, but a swift suspension — a move critics said reinforced concerns about ideological bias and lack of tolerance for dissent on Bluesky. The incident was quickly picked up across X.
“Bluesky banned VP JD Vance 20 minutes after he joined the platform … The libs at Bluesky are so triggered,” wrote the popular account Libs of TikTok. Political commentator Eric Daugherty echoed, “OMG they banned him already.”
The blowback wasn’t limited to conservatives. Liberal journalist Billy Binion, a vocal critic of Vance, called the suspension indefensible. “I can’t stand JD Vance. But suspending the sitting vice president is exactly why Bluesky is unserious & doomed to fail,” he posted. He warned that a platform claiming to value real discourse can’t afford to isolate itself from major political figures — especially one with plausible presidential ambitions.