The White House is already one of the most blocked accounts on Bluesky

https://techcrunch.com/2025/10/19/the-white-house-is-already-one-of-the-most-blocked-accounts-on-bluesky/

by dxs • 9 months ago

78 34 9 months ago

hunglee2• 9 months ago

A notable characteristic of the Trump 2.0 administration is its near universal disregard for protocol. The use of US government assets - like the White House social accounts - for partisan political messaging is clearly damaging to the long term credibility of those accounts, damage which will last long after this administration is gone. It's a crazy thing to observe

ai-christianson• 9 months ago

Isn't the hatch act supposed to prevent this?

shawn-butler• 9 months ago

Due to a lapse in appropriations, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel is closed. Complaints may still be filed, but most will not be addressed until OSC reopens. [0]

They are the "independent" body that enforces Hatch act regulations.

[0] https://osc.gov

newtonsmethod2• 9 months ago

I don't think the hatch act is supposed to prevent the use of the White House account for political purposes. It seems like basically every administration with an X account has done this, e.g.: https://x.com/WhiteHouse46/status/1662171756830892032 .

Although there are probably more contentious case with other government agencies.

V__• 9 months ago

Nobody is going to enforce any laws on Trump or his executive. Either the midterms will allow for oversight to return or he dies before the transition into authoritarianism is complete. With SCOTUS about to end the Voting Rights Act, it could be over sooner than people think.

pclmulqdq2• 9 months ago

If it were August-September of 2026 and an election were around the corner, yes. The Hatch act is pretty narrowly tailored if you look at its enforcement history, though.

gl-prod• 9 months ago

Laws depend on having someone who wants to enforce them.

thephyber• 9 months ago

The Hatch Act was famously almost never enforced.

Couple that with this admin going out of their way to only selectively enforce laws/policies in ways that benefit only them and their desired constituents, and it’s not even worth talking about the Hatch Act until someone else heads the Executive Branch.

mschuster91• 9 months ago

for partisan political messaging is clearly damaging to the long term credibility of those accounts, damage which will last long after this administration is gone.

It's a common topic with this admin: short term profits, long term losses. Be it that weird shit with a sell-off of public lands, the closure of and impedance to science in general, the rollback of clean renewable energy sources in favor of fossil fuels, the turn towards corruption and fascism, the fear they're spreading in everyone who's not white, citizenship be damned.

In Germany we have a saying for this - "nach uns die Sintflut" or "after us, the floods may come". Trump, those around him and those profiting off of him are having one last blast at the cost of what is going to be our children, the truly uber rich are already building bunkers and thinking how to keep their guards loyal - everyone clearly knows where this ship is headed.

TRiG_Ireland• 9 months ago

We have that saying in English, too, except that we quote it in French. "Après moi, le déluge."

skybrian• 9 months ago

I wouldn't even know the account existed if it weren't for the other people talking about it.

(Generally true on Bluesky.)

nothercastle• 9 months ago

This is why blue stalled. Discovery is absolutely crap. And the only thing it wanted to feed me originally was gay, furry and anime content. Probably not a solid intro feed setup.

Gigachad• 9 months ago

Lol yeah I thought the discovery feed was fine but I do just want to find furries there.

LexiMax• 9 months ago

I'm not on bluesky myself, but is it weird that I am actually a little bit relieved by your description?

Personally, I think it's generally a bad thing when a social space tries to be all things to all people.

archagon• 9 months ago

Seems lively and active to me.

tim333• 9 months ago

I saw a lot of mentions of it on X for what that's worth.

janwl• 9 months ago

I thought that bluesky only showed you posts from people you follow so why go through the effort of blocking someone whose posts you’ll never see?

detaro• 9 months ago

it doesn't

mpalmer• 9 months ago

Because blocks are public and thus tend to be a form of expression

Avshalom• 9 months ago

The default "following" feed only shows who you follow. There are a couple other default feeds like "Discover" and "Popular with Friends" that show other stuff. There also a bunch of feeds made by people that show whatever...

The result is that even if you have extremely good hygiene about who you follow: rage bait will still often make it's way onto your skyline as quote dunks, reskeets or replies. So if there's an account you just don't ever want to see blocking is still the most fullproof way, even then you're still often exposed to screenshots of rage bait.

As a corollary if there are accounts that everybody knows are just going to be trolls, mass blocks help starve them of attention before they get a foot hold.

Our_Benefactors• 9 months ago

reskeets

Gross.

mcphage2• 9 months ago

People retweet and quote tweet things, and honestly, why would I ever want their brand of toxic garbage in my life? Even if accidentally?

delichon• 9 months ago

Self defense. They are making significant real world changes that can change your plans if you, you know, interact with the world. Like traveling to another country, or saying things out loud. It's good to be prepared. The pace of those changes is at a historic high in the current administration. There's a sweet spot between being informed and obsessed, but it's sometimes hard to station keep.

nitwit005• 9 months ago

Yep, unfortunately, it's practical to block people who behave like trolls in advance, as people seemingly can't help but repost their annoying content.

The White House is already one of the most blocked accounts on Bluesky

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