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US Vice President JD Vance joined social media platform Bluesky and has asked his 4 million followers on X to follow him onto the new platform, which is styled as an alternative to the Elon Musk-owned social network.
On Wednesday, the vice president shared screenshots of his Bluesky page on the X platform and told his users: "Hope to see you guys there."
"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 first post on the platform.
"I'm thrilled to be here to engage with all of you."
Vance's account was briefly suspended due to concerns it could have been set up by an imposter.
But, as of Thursday, Vance's account had over 7,000 followers.
Vance joins the progressive answer to X
In 2022, then-Twitter was acquired by tech billionaire Elon Musk in 2022 and rebranded to X, Musk, a former advisor to President Donald Trump, has pushed the platform in a more conservative direction, while replacing fact-checking posts with user-driven "community notes."
Conservatives had complained that social media sites like Twitter were censoring their viewpoints.
X has been criticized for allowing hate speech and misinformation to flourish, which has driven some users towards alternative platforms like Bluesky.
In another one of his first posts, Vance praised the US Supreme Court recently banning gender-affirming medical treatments for transgender youth.
News agency AFP estimates that X has around 600 million active users, while Bluesky has about 30 million.
Edited by: Zac Crellin
