A new update from the Pew Research Center sheds light on how politically engaged social media influencers are approaching Bluesky, with many on the left embracing the platform without fully leaving X.
The report revisits a group of 500 prominent influencers first analyzed by Pew in late 2024. These individuals each have over 100,000 followers and frequently post about news and politics. The latest update, conducted in February and March 2025, is the first to include Bluesky in its data.
Pew found that 43% of these influencers now have a presence on Bluesky. The growth is particularly noticeable among left-leaning voices, including those that took a strong left-leaning stance in the American election in 2024. In contrast, only 15% of right-leaning influencers have made the move. Just over half of the Bluesky accounts tied to these influencers were created after the 2024 presidential election, likely as a response to Elon Musk becoming more intertwined with American politics whilst also owning X.
Still, this doesn’t reflect a mass exodus from X. Despite increased Bluesky adoption, 82% of influencers tracked by Pew remain active on X, down only slightly from 85% in mid-2024. According to the report, “most influencers continue to post more regularly on X than on Bluesky.”
However, Bluesky is seeing increased engagement. In early January, 54% of influencers on the platform were posting actively. By late March, that number had risen to 66%, indicating steady, if cautious, momentum among politically active users. This no doubt overlooks a number of other content creators – streamers, artists, and numerous other creative niches – that have large fanbases and a desire to avoid X due to its current owner’s political stances, but may also have led to Bluesky being seen as a dedicated leftist social media space as a result.
