Brandon Fletcher
What Bluesky’s midterms surge and pronoun feature reveal
This article examines Bluesky’s response to the midterms, its new pronoun field and the different ways users interpret the platform’s political culture. Readers can compare Bluesky’s calmer, more curated experience with its surge in election-night traffic and the timing of the profile update.
- Traffic surge: Bluesky reported data traffic at 200% of its usual level before polls closed on election night.
- Pronoun field: Bluesky added a dedicated pronoun field to user bios on the Wednesday after the midterms.
- Timing explanation: A Bluesky spokesperson said the feature’s release after the election was coincidental and that the work had been underway for two weeks.
- Platform trade-off: Bluesky’s lower levels of spam and unwanted content can make the platform more pleasant, while also reinforcing its political bubble.
New York Times opinion writer Carlos Lozada said on Wednesday, after Democrats’ victory in the midterms the previous night, “I think Democrats across the board got A.O.C.’s memo: Woke 1 was crazy. We’re focusing on economic populism.” That reflects a popular mainstream media narrative. It may not resonate, however, if you’ve been on Bluesky for the past two days.
Bluesky is a social media platform where the markers of old-fashioned wokeness were never fully pushed aside during the 2024 “vibe shift.” At times, those values seem central to the platform’s leadership. CEO Toni Schneider said the platform was “seeing a wave of new people joining and old friends coming back.”
If a Musk-free alternative to X appeals to you, Bluesky may be a good fit; if it does not, the platform may not be for you. As Elon Musk took ownership of what was then known as Twitter, Bluesky emerged as a small, decentralized Twitter alternative, conceived in part by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey. Some former Twitter users who objected to Musk’s ownership moved to Bluesky in 2023, and its user numbers rose after Donald Trump’s 2024 re-election.
Between major cultural moments for liberals and leftists, Bluesky has a dedicated daily user base. Critics, including writers at The Atlantic, have portrayed its users as members of a liberal bubble who reinforce one another’s views and punish dissent. Last year, journalist and podcaster Jesse Singal visited Bluesky to provoke users who object to his IDW views on transgender issues, and some users called for him to be banned. Singal’s response to the episode, published by The Free Press, was titled “Bluesky Has a Death Threat Problem.”
For many users, Bluesky is a calmer place to read posts than X. The platform has a less intrusive recommendation algorithm, little spam and very little AI-generated content for users who want to avoid it. Most Bluesky users post about everyday topics, and many are not political. When users behave like trolls, others may block them in large numbers. That moderation can deepen the platform’s political bubble, a concern Schneider has acknowledged, while also helping keep conversations more pleasant.
As of July that year, Bluesky use was declining overall. The platform had only a small fraction of X’s daily active users, and its daily active users on mobile fell 25.6% year over year to around 3 million.
Then came the midterms.
Before polls closed, Bluesky said it was experiencing a major increase in traffic, reporting “200% of our usual data traffic—and climbing!” The increase came ahead of the expected election results, rather than after the results were fully in. “Thanks to all of you for making this a night to remember,” the platform posted.
After the Texas Senate race was called for Democrat James Talarico, many Bluesky users celebrated, seeing the result as a sign of a wider Democratic wave. Some of the celebration took the form of ironic triumphalism, captured in the “Put the pronouns in the bio” meme. The phrase also appeared as “Put the pronouns back in the email.”
The pronoun meme shows a gun tinted with the rainbow colors of a pride flag, pointed at a slouching person. Its message is that the political moment has shifted against anti-woke influencers and people who use slurs. The meme suggests that wokeness is back and is no longer holding back.
On Wednesday, Bluesky released a feature that lets users add pronouns directly to their bios. Users could already include pronouns anywhere in their bio text, but the profile had not offered a dedicated pronoun field. The timing stood out to users.
A GitHub page for work on the pronoun field appeared on Wednesday evening, and the feature was newly available on my account. The feature was added that day. Its release felt to some users like a celebration of the Democratic victory, though that interpretation was not confirmed by Bluesky.
Libbed out so hard we unlocked the pronoun field in bluesky bios! (It’s in the edit profile button)I know some people like to joke about them, but in all seriousness it is important. Address people the way they want to be addressed, it’s not that fuckin hard. Being an asshole about it is a choice.
— Rob Roberts (@robroberts.bsky.social) 2026-11-05T01:15:37.708Z
When asked about the timing, a Bluesky spokesperson told Gizmodo, “The day-after-midterms timing is simply a coincidence.” The spokesperson said the feature had been in development for two weeks and happened to ship that day. “There was already a lexicon for pronouns, and multiple Atmosphere apps were already using it. Bluesky implemented the change today on the Bluesky platform itself,” the spokesperson said. Atmosphere refers to the community of software built on Bluesky’s technology.
What should users know about Bluesky’s pronoun feature?
The dedicated pronoun field lets users add pronouns to their Bluesky profile, while users could already write pronouns in their bio text. The spokesperson said the feature had been in development for two weeks and that its release date was coincidental.
Bluesky’s pronoun field is a profile option whose timing after the midterms was described by the company as coincidental.
- Where it appears: Users can find the field through the profile-editing controls.
- What it changes: It adds a dedicated place for pronouns rather than requiring users to type them into the bio text.
- Why it launched: Bluesky said it was building feature parity with other social platforms.
The feature’s release followed the midterms, but Bluesky said development had started earlier. That distinction separates the verifiable timing from users’ interpretations of its significance.
Why did Bluesky traffic rise during the midterms?
Bluesky reported that its data traffic reached 200% of its usual level before polls closed. The post attributed the surge to the platform’s users, but the source does not establish a single cause for the increase.
Bluesky reported election-night traffic at twice its usual level before polls closed.
The traffic increase came after a period of declining mobile use: the source reports a 25.6% year-over-year drop to around 3 million daily active mobile users as of July. The election-night traffic figure and the July mobile-user figure describe different measures and time periods.
Is Bluesky calmer than X, and what is the trade-off?
Many users find Bluesky calmer than X because they encounter less spam and a less intrusive recommendation algorithm. The same user controls that limit unwanted interactions can also make the platform more politically insular.
Bluesky’s lower levels of spam and content moderation can improve the reading experience while reinforcing a political bubble.
- Potential benefit: Users may encounter less spam and less unwanted content.
- Potential trade-off: Mass blocking can limit exposure to opposing views.
- Audience context: Bluesky’s daily active user base was much smaller than X’s in the figures cited.
Whether that balance suits a user depends on whether a calmer feed or a wider range of viewpoints matters more to them. The source presents both the moderation benefit and the concern about political homogeneity.
Questions about Bluesky and its midterms update
These answers distinguish Bluesky’s reported platform changes from interpretations of the political timing.
Did Bluesky add a pronoun field after the midterms?
Yes. Bluesky made a dedicated pronoun field available on the Wednesday after the midterms.
Could users already add pronouns to their Bluesky bios?
Yes. Users could write pronouns in their bio text before the dedicated field was introduced.
Did Bluesky say the pronoun feature was an election celebration?
No. A spokesperson said the timing was coincidental and that the feature had been in development for two weeks.
How much did Bluesky’s traffic increase on election night?
Bluesky said its data traffic reached 200% of its usual level before polls closed.
Why do some users describe Bluesky as a political bubble?
Users can block people who behave like trolls, which may make the platform more pleasant but can also reduce exposure to differing views.
Daniel Mercer
