ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) has quickly become the third most-blocked account on Bluesky after receiving verification last Friday, according to independent trackers. Users on Bluesky are expressing their frustration about having a government account on the platform. Many are urging others to either block ICE directly or join a block list that targets all U.S. government accounts.
This blocklist gained traction after the White House and various government agencies joined Bluesky last October to share messages blaming Democrats for a government shutdown. At that time, accounts from the Departments of Homeland Security, Commerce, Transportation, the Interior, Health and Human Services, State, and Defense, along with the White House, signed up.
As a result, the White House has become one of the most-blocked accounts on Bluesky, currently sitting at No. 2, just behind Vice President J.D. Vance, according to stats from Clearsky, a tracking site that uses Bluesky’s API to monitor blocking activity.
Interestingly, ICE didn’t join Bluesky until later; the account @icegov.bsky.social was created on November 26, 2025. It was only recently verified, leading to speculation about whether Bluesky’s team lacked sufficient information for verification or was deliberating on the issue. Bluesky has not responded to inquiries for clarification.
Currently, ICE’s account is reported to be over 60% on its way to becoming the most-blocked on Bluesky.
ICE also maintains a presence across other social media platforms such as X, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn. Most of these accounts are verified on platforms that offer verification, aside from YouTube.
Bluesky’s decision to host and verify ICE indicates a shift toward alignment with larger social media platforms, moving away from the original vision of the open social web, often referred to as the fediverse. In this decentralized network of independent platforms, user communities typically hold more power over which accounts gain visibility. The fediverse includes apps like Mastodon, Pixelfed, PeerTube, Flipboard, and, to some degree, Instagram Threads, though Meta’s app isn’t fully federated. While the U.S. government doesn’t have any accounts on Mastodon, users can still follow accounts like @potus on Threads.
One reason government accounts might hesitate to join Mastodon could be its smaller user base. Additionally, any government presence on the network could face easy blocking from individual server operators. While such accounts might set up their own servers to engage with the fediverse, other parts of the community could choose not to interoperate with those servers, significantly limiting their reach.
Eugen Rochko, Mastodon’s founder, recently expressed his concerns by posting an anti-ICE message, suggesting that “Abolish ICE” doesn’t go “nearly far enough” to solve the issues within the U.S. He also informed his followers of his decision to opt his account out of the bridge connecting Mastodon with Bluesky.
Bridging technology, including a project called Bridgy Fed, allows different decentralized platforms to connect, even when they use different protocols. This week, Bridgy Fed launched a feature enabling the addition of domain blocklists to bridged accounts, which could allow users in the fediverse to block U.S. government agencies posting on Bluesky.
When reached for comment, Rochko refrained from confirming whether ICE’s presence on Bluesky influenced his decision to disengage from the bridge, calling the choice a “personal” matter.
Tensions have often existed between the fediverse and newer decentralized platforms like Bluesky, Blacksky, and Northsky Social, as their differing approaches to decentralization attract both supporters and critics.
