J.D. Vance Becomes the Most Blocked Account on Bluesky

Although there are plenty of people on Elon Musk‘s X, Truth Social, and any number of other social media platforms who agree with J.D. Vance‘s transphobic rhetoric, the vice president decided to venture elsewhere for a victory lap following a Supreme Court ruling Wednesday that upheld the constitutionality of a Tennessee law banning gender-affirming care for minors in the state. In a surprise move, Vance joined the website Bluesky, an enclave that has welcomed millions of users fleeing the right-wing extremism of X, including many transgender people tired of the harassment and abuse they faced there.

Vance wasted no time trolling this community. “I’ve been told this app has become the place to go for common sense political discussion and analysis,” he wrote in his first Bluesky post on Wednesday. “So I’m thrilled to be here to engage with all of you.” The image shared with this comment was a screenshot from Justice Clarence Thomas’ concurring opinion on the Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling in U.S. v. Skrmetti, in which he argued that there was “no medical consensus on how best to treat gender dysphoria in children” and that “recent revelations suggest that leading voices in this area have relied on questionable evidence, and have allowed ideology to influence their medical guidance.” (Prominent medical organizations and LGBTQ advocates have continuously said, to the contrary, that the data supports the use of gender-affirming medical interventions, including puberty-blocking medications and hormones, for trans youths, and that such decisions should be left to patients and their parents.)

Vance commented once more in support of Thomas’ opinion, adding a conspiracist flourish in a third post by claiming that “many of those scientists [in favor of gender-affirming care for minors] are receiving substantial resources from big pharma to push these medicines on kids.” Predictably, the vice president received thousands more hostile replies than likes for these provocations, but as of Thursday afternoon, he had 9,000 followers on the platform. His account was also verified by Bluesky after it temporarily suspended Vance on Wednesday due to a false alarm that the page was not authentic. “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 told TechCrunch of the accidental ban. “The account was quickly restored and verified so people can easily confirm its authenticity.”

After his reinstatement, Vance quickly surpassed a record for the website: he now operates the most blocked account on Bluesky. The dubious achievement was noted with some sarcastic dismay by journalist Jesse Singal, the most blocked user prior to Vance’s debut on the site. (Singal’s deeply skeptical coverage of gender-affirming care for trans adolescents was cited in an amicus brief on Skrmetti by the Family Research Council, an evangelical think tank that opposes abortion and LGBTQ+ rights.) Vance is currently blocked by more than 10 times as many Bluesky users than follow him there, and edged toward the milestone number of 100,000 on Thursday. The site has more than 36 million users in total.

Vance is not following anyone back on the platform just yet, and it’s unclear whether he’ll ever use it again, to antagonize trans people or for any other purpose. But if he does come back to speak his mind, a lot fewer people will see it.