Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a progressive representing parts of the Queens and Bronx boroughs of New York City, became the first user on the social media site Bluesky to reach 1 million followers earlier this week.
Bluesky has been around since the fall of 2021. However, it wasn’t until last month that the site gained popularity as an alternative to X, formerly known as Twitter.
Many users shifted platforms due to their disdain for billionaire Elon Musk, who owns X and was a major supporter of Donald Trump during the 2024 presidential race. After Trump’s win in November, many liberal and left-leaning X users sought different options for social media, citing the fact that X has become overrun with hateful, far right accounts as a result of lax regulation under Musk.
Ocasio-Cortez was among those who started a Bluesky account after Trump’s win. In a post currently pinned to the top of her feed, the New York lawmaker explained why she prefers Bluesky to X.
“A thing I like here is it’s okay to have moments of happiness in public without being broadly scolded, and I believe that sustaining this kind of humanity will be very important as we resist fascism,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote in the post. “We have to sustain each other. Making joy isn’t denial, it’s how we will survive.”
While Ocasio-Cortez’s X account is still popular and somewhat active, it is often the target of ridicule and attacks from right-wing accounts.
In a recent post remarking on her achievement of 1 million followers, Ocasio-Cortez expounded upon why she made the shift.
“People are leaving Twitter because it’s not fun anymore and no one is obligated to be on a platform they don’t enjoy. It’s not rocket science,” she said.
Since the exodus of users from X to Bluesky over the past month, the latter site has amassed more than 24 million new accounts. Some faithful users of X and other commentators have claimed that the new site is nothing more than an echo chamber where liberal and left-leaning users only discuss ideas among themselves — but media journalist Parker Molloy has contested that critique.
“I think that our default view of social media has become one where insults have become the default, where interactions are a form of combat, and there’s an expectation that being online means bracing yourself for hostility at every turn,” Molloy wrote last month. “Bluesky challenges that norm, not by shutting out opposing views, but by creating a space where conversations aren’t immediately derailed by harassment or bad-faith arguments.”
“It’s not about avoiding disagreement — it’s about fostering an environment where disagreements can actually happen productively,” Molloy added.
Ocasio-Cortez made headlines for another reason this week: She’s reportedly mulling a run for the top Democratic spot on the House Oversight Committee, which is tasked with ensuring “the efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability of the federal government and all its agencies.” As the ranking member of the committee, Ocasio-Cortez would be a leading voice against Republicans and the Trump administration in their attempts to use the government to go after their perceived political enemies.
“I’ll be making a decision shortly,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.