On Monday, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) became the first individual account with a million followers on Bluesky. After the US elections, this decentralized platform became very popular, and its user base tripled in three months. As for the reason for this, AOC wrote about Elon Musk’s X in a recent post: “People leave Twitter because it’s no longer fun, and no one is obligated to be on a platform they don’t like. It’s not rocket science.”
AOC was active on the platform long before her post-election surge: since joining in April 2023, she has posted 437 posts. “A waitress became a congresswoman from the Bronx and Queens,” her profile description reads. “Elected at the grassroots level, with little support. A better world is possible.”
Bluesky’s account is still the most popular on the platform, with nearly 17 million followers at the time of publication. But AOC’s audience of 1,032,729 users is the largest of all. George Takei (862,646) and Mark Hamill (797,541) are the next most popular. It turns out that being a part of the legendary Star… franchise and writing witty, sharp and socially conscious takes is paying off.
The most popular publication is The Onion (769,718), followed by The New York Times (762,499), perhaps illustrating that satire is the most reliable source of news today. Shameless plug: You can also follow Engadget on Bluesky.
