Social media upstart Bluesky is working to break from its reputation as a platform that caters primarily to progressive points of view by inviting more diverse members while still giving its existing user base tools to moderate the type of content and speech they’re exposed to, its CEO Toni Schneider said in a new interview this week.
Speaking with The Verge, Schneider acknowledged Bluesky has nurtured an echo chamber of left-leaning political views that often makes it difficult for moderate or opposing viewpoints to feel welcome and develop their own audience, which was the opposite of what Bluesky’s foundational technology was supposed to do.
“We definitely want that to change,” Schneider said. “It is already changing. It certainly wasn’t designed to attract one specific group of people. It works for anyone.”
Bluesky continues to see a high level of political discussion, particularly around the 2026 election cycle, with its most-popular posts providing counter commentary to that of the Trump administration and right-of-center figures.
When members of the Trump administration and leading conservative voices attempt to join the platform, they’re often met with strong opposition from Bluesky users. Among the most-blocked on Bluesky are the official accounts for the White House (124,150 users blocking as of Tuesday), Vice President J.D. Vance (182,700), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (113,800), the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (81,900), the U.S. State Department (51,000) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (43,400), according to a website that monitors and reports blocking-related activity.
Some moderate or controversial voices have also found themselves on the most-blocked list, including entrepreneur Mark Cuban (54,500 users blocking as of Tuesday), journalist Jesse Singal (86,000), author Brianna Wu (64,600) and Brazilian historian Felipe Nito (44,500). Prior to the Trump administration and its various agencies joining Bluesky, Singal and Wu routinely placed at the top of the most-blocked list.
Bluesky may never be able to fully shake the progressive echo chamber that it once influenced — the company’s executives, including its current and former trust and safety managers, promoted the platform as a safe alternative to X (formerly Twitter) following Elon Musk’s acquisition of that service, and it worked as intended — but the company is making efforts to try to diversify the type of experience people might have if they want to interact with non-political, non-polarizing content.
For one, Bluesky is among the few mainstream platforms that invites adult media, so long as it is appropriately labeled and doesn’t violate local or international laws. It also regularly discloses the actions it takes to curb child exploitation material, abuse, hate and racism on its service, though its moderation efforts have been called into question.
Bluesky is also working to court non-political content producers, including stakeholders in entertainment, finance and professional sports. To that end, the company has reached out to major leagues and sports broadcasters in recent months, working to bring their content and voices into the platform.
“We’ve made a very concerted effort to bring on sports leagues and sports writers, and it’s worked really well,” Schneider said this week. “There are a ton of sports conversations now on the app, and those people come here for the sports, not for the liberal politics.”
But Schneider acknowledges that political discourse remains extremely popular on Bluesky, despite the platform’s efforts to diversify away from it. He said the goal is not to push those users away but to add more communities so the overall mix “balances out.”
Schneider also defended Bluesky’s moderation approach, saying the company has built a system that differs from traditional centralized social platforms. Bluesky has about 50 employees, along with outside contractors who help with moderation.
“Moderation is huge in any social product,” Schneider said. “What we’ve done differently is that our whole moderation system is composable or pluggable.”
Under that system, Bluesky can label content, but outside groups and other services built on the AT Protocol — the technology framework that powers the Bluesky social experience — can also create their own moderation systems. Those labels can then be used by other developers, apps or communities if they choose.
Schneider pointed to Blacksky, a social network built on the same protocol and designed around the needs of Black users, as an example of how communities can create their own moderation policies while remaining part of the broader network. Blacksky uses the same AT Protocol technology, and its users can engage with those on Bluesky or choose to ignore them if they’d like.
“This has really helped where the moderation burden isn’t all on one team that has to scale and look at everything,” Schneider said.
Bluesky is also developing private data features that would allow more private, membership-based communities to operate on the AT Protocol. Schneider said that could further decentralize moderation by allowing users to leave networks they dislike and build their own communities.
