Bluesky is the digital place to be for anyone who considers themselves a card-carrying member of “The Resistance” to Donald Trump and/or an Elon Musk hater. Spend five minutes on the app, and that is clear.
In a matter of weeks, the social platform has enjoyed rapid growth as left-leaning X users — including prominent media pundits and Hollywood celebrities — flee Musk’s app. The reason? Trump, who Musk publicly backed and spent more than $100 million to help get back into the White House, won the election.
Now, to boycott the Musk-Trump alliance, disenchanted X users are turning to Bluesky as their new “Blue Heaven,” as “Sons of Anarchy” actor Chad Lindberg put it.
For those who haven’t explored Blue Heaven yet, here’s a taste of what’s on the app:
“Star Wars” star Mark Hammill joined the app on Sunday. He announced his arrival by sharing a photoshopped newspaper dubbed “The Resistance” (Issue #1) with his picture included. The “paper” includes a write-up that says Hamill is “known for his sharp wit and unwavering support for progressive causes.”
Hamill’s X account, where he was frequently critical of Trump and shared his support for Kamala Harris, hasn’t been active since the day after Election Day. His Bluesky account has nearly 500,000 followers by Tuesday morning.
Other celebs who have made the switch include: Gabrielle Union, who announced her exit from X with a photoshopped letter on Friday, Stephen King, Ben Stiller, who posts a lot about his New York Knicks, and Barbra Streisand.
There’s also a laundry list of media personalities who have taken their talents to Bluesky. The Washington Post’s Jen Rubin, MSNBC’s Katie Phang, former MSNBC host Medhi Hasan, MSNBC’s Joy Reid, and former CNN host Don Lemon. They’ve all had a fair amount to say about Trump, the election, and Musk, since joining Bluesky.
Bluesky is also the new home to a number of politics-focused X users, like former NBA player Rex Chapman and “Brooklyn Dad.” Chances are, if you used X to get political news in the past, these guys made it into your feed one way or another. Now they’re on Bluesky, talking about the need to “fight fascism” and not “normalize” the next Trump administration.
Of course, there are a lot of non-famous users jumping over to Bluesky too. Data provided by Sensor Tower, a market research company, showed Bluesky’s daily active users jumped 62% in the week following the election. That growth continued this week, with Bluesky saying it reached 20 million users on Tuesday.
Here are a few of those “Resistance” members on Bluesky:
And Bluesky users who search for what is going on with Musk or Trump on the app are hit with interesting results — mostly posts bashing the two billionaires. The first two posts when searching “Musk” on Tuesday showcased two posts saying “F— Elon Musk” with a few hundred re-shares each. Another popular post that was recommended when searching for “Musk” said the Tesla boss “appears to be walking proof that penile implants don’t work.”
It’s a similar barrage when users search for “Trump” on Bluesky. Users will see posts from George Conway calling the president-elect “incompetent” and “malevolent,” for example, and the third post recommended when TheWrap searched “Trump” was the following joke from comedian Gabe Sanchez:
“Look, I’m not saying all Trump supporters are Nazis but all Nazis are definitely Trump supporters.”
In short: Bluesky is a safe space for disaffected X users to go and share their anti-Musk and anti-Trump thoughts. It’ll be worth seeing if the app can sustain its post-election momentum and build a formidable alternative to X, which Musk has said is experiencing “all-time high” usage in the past two weeks.
