Vice President JD Vance learned the hard way what happens when a conservative walks into the lion’s den. Just 20 minutes after creating a Bluesky account Wednesday evening, Vance was booted from the liberal-leaning platform—before his account was quietly restored.

The reason? Bluesky’s automated system allegedly mistook the real vice president for one of the many impersonators they say have plagued the app. The company claimed in a statement to Fox News that Vance’s new profile was caught in a flagging sweep meant to detect fake accounts. “The account was quickly reinstated within 20 minutes of the suspension,” Bluesky said, adding that they’ve now given Vance’s handle a verified badge to confirm its authenticity.

But that explanation didn’t stop critics from hammering the platform for what they saw as blatant political bias. Vance’s suspension came mere minutes after he posted a message inviting “common sense political discussion” and then shared Justice Clarence Thomas’s scathing concurring opinion from a Supreme Court ruling that upheld Tennessee’s ban on sex-change procedures for minors.

Vance echoed Thomas’s concern about politicized medicine, writing that “many of our so-called ‘experts’ have used bad arguments and substandard science to push experimental therapies on our youth.” In a follow-up, he pointed to Big Pharma’s influence over pediatric gender medicine, asking, “What do you think?”

The response from Bluesky? Silence, then suspension.

Conservatives were quick to pounce. “Bluesky banned VP JD Vance 20 minutes after he joined the platform,” mocked Libs of TikTok. Political commentator Eric Daugherty simply said, “OMG they banned him already.” Even some critics of Vance were baffled. Libertarian reporter Billy Binion noted, “I can’t stand JD Vance. But suspending the sitting vice president is exactly why Bluesky is unserious & doomed to fail.”

The move, however brief, underscored a growing concern about ideological conformity on left-wing platforms. Bluesky has become a sanctuary for progressives who fled Elon Musk’s version of X, which they view as increasingly tolerant of dissenting voices. But Vance’s swift banishment has many asking whether these same users really want debate—or just another echo chamber.

Justice Thomas’s opinion, which sparked the online firestorm, pulled no punches. He criticized the lack of medical consensus on youth gender transitions and slammed researchers for letting ideology contaminate science. It’s the kind of message Vance clearly intended to amplify with his first posts—and one that clearly struck a nerve.

The timing couldn’t have been worse for Bluesky. With the 2028 election cycle already percolating and Vance considered a potential presidential contender, the optics of censoring a sitting vice president—especially over a Supreme Court discussion—was a PR disaster.

This latest dust-up raises deeper questions about the future of free speech in the digital town square. If a vice president can be silenced seconds into his debut, what does that mean for everyday users trying to voice dissent on these so-called “open platforms”?

For now, Vance remains on Bluesky, profile verified and suspension lifted. But the message from this incident is loud and clear: the speech police are still watching—and conservatives are still their favorite target.