The Media Research Center’s Catherine Salgado huffed in a June 19 post:
Leftist anti-free speech haven Bluesky, which claims to prioritize a “pleasant experience” for users, banned the vice president of the United States almost immediately after he created his account.
On Wednesday, Vice President JD Vance posted on X, “Just set up my page on @bluesky, hope to see you guys there!” Multiple accounts, including the New York Post, Axios reporter Marc Caputo, and Libs of TikTok, subsequently reported that Vance was suspended on the platform only about “12” to “20 minutes” after he launched his account. MRC confirmed the account has been restored as of Thursday morning.
”Vice President Vance’s account was briefly flagged by our automated systems that try to detect impersonation attempts which have targeted public figures like him in the past,” Bluesky told Newsweek. “The account was quickly restored and verified so people can easily confirm its authenticity.”
Salgado’s complaints are ironic given how quick her employer is to block its critics. For instance, ConWebWatch has been blocked by the main MRC account on X and, even more ironically, the account for Free Speech America, the MRC division for which Salgado writes and which purports to oppose censorship. (And back when NewsBusters had a comment section, we were banned for simply telling the truth.) Additionally, numerous MRC employees have either blocked or muted ConWebWatch. That’s right — an organization that claims to support “free speech” doesn’t like it when others engage in it.
WorldNetDaily did something similar in a June 26 article by Bob Unruh:
Leftists who have migrated to a social media platform called Bluesky, a competitor – even though it’s only a fraction of the size – of X, formerly Twitter, have responded to an invitation from Vice President JD Vance to discuss the issues … by blocking him.
A Fox News report explained that Vance “is leveraging” the social media platform “commonly used by liberals,” to troll Democrats.
He joined the platform a week ago, and was able, eventually, to post after the corporation originally blocked him entirely.
He instantly became the social media platform’s “most blocked user,” the report said.
Again, the irony is on the painful side — WND’s main X account has blocked us for years, as has “executive news editor” Joe Kovacs.
Should media organizations known for blocking critics really be mocking others who block people they don’t like? Probably not.