The Washington Metro — the district’s public transit system — already has a Bluesky account. So does the city of Minneapolis, which had 743 followers and 12 posts as of Friday afternoon. That compares to more than 214,000 followers on X and a seemingly endless list of posts.
And now New York City is getting into the Bluesky game.
Mayor Eric Adams — dealing with drought, wildfires and his own indictment on bribery and other charges — recently told agencies under his command to set up Bluesky accounts.
Those accounts would join the more than 20 million Bluesky users, according to figures from Friday.
More than 2.5 million people have joined since the election, reportedly annoyed at the politics of Trump-supporting Elon Musk, the owner of X, which was previously known as Twitter — along with what many new Bluesky users have described as the “toxic” feel at the Musk social media platform.
Bluesky was born from Twitter in 2019, but these days, the two platforms are not only competitors but offer people a way to signal their political stance just via the decision about which one to use.
Now state and local governments face their own choices about how to respond — and added risk from people bent on using the rising service for mischief or crime.
In Minneapolis, officials are “establishing a city primary account and do not have immediate plans outside of that,” Allen Henry, the city’s media relations coordinator, told Government Technology via email on Friday.
As Bluesky grows and changes, the city will keep its eye on it, he said, and take a “larger approach” if that proves necessary.
“Ultimately, our goal is to communicate to and inform the public,” Henry said. “For communications to be most effective, we need to communicate in the spaces our audience is and in ways that resonate with them.”
In Austin, Texas, known for its tech-heavy economy and progressive culture, city officials are taking a slower approach, according to Memi Cárdenas, Austin’s media relations manager.
“Bluesky is a relatively new social media platform, and we have not yet done a thorough review of how it could fit in our communications strategy as a city,” she said.
Austin relies on X, especially during emergencies.
The city has more than 213,000 followers on Musk’s social media platform, and reaching that mark via a new tool would require “notable resources to establish, which include staff capacity, developing internal usage policies, researching platform rules and regulations, ensuring accessibility and archiving,” Cárdenas said via email.
Much like the case in Minneapolis, officials in Austin will monitor Bluesky, which stands as a communications option for the future.
Making a change to the new platform — any new platform — would involve a review from the city’s social media committee and a recommendation to the city’s communications director for approval or denial, she said.
Even so, the city’s lack of presence on Bluesky hasn’t stopped people bent on fraud from creating “a couple of profiles impersonating the official city of Austin, and we are working to remove those accounts from the platform,” Cárdenas added.
More such instances for other agencies seems probable, given recent experiences at Twitter.
In fact, it attracted an onslaught of impersonators after the service launched a paid verification service in 2022. New targets and updated features always attract criminals, vandals and other such people.
Neither Bluesky nor press officials in the New York Mayor’s Office responded immediately to request for comment. Nor did X — since taking over the platform, Musk has generally ignored or mocked requests from reporters.
While a count of public agencies so far on Bluesky was not available, at least one social media expert has noticed changes when it comes to government activity there.
“I have noticed government agencies and quasi-governments adding Bluesky accounts, especially ones that often need to get updated info to audiences quickly such as transportation authorities,” said Megan Duncan, an associate professor at Virginia Tech who researches digital media and associated topics.
She anticipates that as audiences become ever more fragmented, governments might use Bluesky to make sure they are reaching as many people as possible, especially when it comes to information deemed urgent.
“But if these [agencies] already had an X account, the good news is that the formatting of information and text is similar enough that it lowers the burden on social media managers,” she told Government Technology.
For those agencies that join Bluesky now, their “early-adopter presence” could bring more engagement and growth than will be the case for latter users.
That’s not the only potential benefit of joining now.
“It’s also the optimal time to get the prime handles, which simultaneously can signal credibility and prevent bad-faith actors from snagging them and impersonating government agencies and politicians,” Duncan said via email.
Bluesky, after all, offers no verified badges as other social media platforms do.
Governments that act early enough, though, can set up domains and handles that signal credibility to their audiences, she said. Those audiences, of course, will at the same time be developing their own “literacy skills” for Bluesky, learning its rhythms and players, and figuring out who deserves their trust.
Smaller public agencies will probably face the biggest challenges.
“The technical skills to set up and host your own government domain may be a barrier for entry for smaller government agencies,” she said. “I’ve noticed even larger agencies like New York City’s MTA is on the common server. Alternatively, Washington’s Metro has established its own domain.”
So will Bluesky endure, or will enthusiasm fade as the election recedes? That’s one of the uncertainties that will occupy social media managers and communications professionals at public agencies in the coming months.
Some governments have already made up their mind against Bluesky, at least for now: UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer recently told reporters that departments under his supervision will stick with X because that’s where people are.
Government technology suppliers face the same issue. A spokesperson for industry giant Tyler Technologies said Friday that while the company uses X and not Bluesky, that all depends on where public agency clients and other audiences are.
Finances, moderation and having an ample and capable workforce still stand as question marks for Bluesky, Duncan said.
“As more opinion leaders and authorities join, Bluesky feels like it’s going to establish itself as the place for microblogging,” Duncan said. “But, I’m not yet ready to call Bluesky the marketplace winner alternative to X because of the revenue piece.”
