The share of news influencers on Bluesky almost doubled after the 2024 US election to 43%, but X remains popular, with 82% of news influencers having an account
The Pew-Knight Initiative supports new research on how Americans absorb civic information, form beliefs and identities, and engage in their communities.
Pew Research Center
Context & Ripple Effects
Pew’s November 2024 survey established that news influencers were already an important distribution layer: 20% of U.S. adults said they got news from them, while 85% of those influencers had X accounts. The new reading shows a substantial expansion of Bluesky’s presence among that same creator cohort after the election.
This matters because prior Pew work found X was the exception among major social platforms in being a place users specifically came to for news, rather than merely encountering it incidentally. The account figures therefore indicate diversification in where news creators maintain distribution, not a demonstrated replacement of X.
First-order effects
Bluesky gains a materially larger pool of news-influencer accounts, increasing the potential supply of original reporting, commentary and civic-information posts on the service.
X retains the broadest influencer account footprint at 82%, so news influencers and their audiences are more likely to operate across both platforms than to have made a clean migration.
Second-order effects
Influencers face a stronger incentive to cross-post and manage multiple social audiences; platforms must compete for creators’ attention and posting priority rather than simply account creation.
For publishers, campaigns and news consumers, creator-led distribution becomes less dependent on a single feed, although the survey does not show how much engagement or news consumption has moved with those accounts.
Third-order effects
If account diversification persists, social-news distribution could become structurally more fragmented: creators may act as portable outlets while platforms compete for their news-oriented user behavior and reach.
The distinction between having an account and using it as a primary news venue will become more important for measuring platform power, especially as civic-information flows are increasingly routed through individual creators.
The trend: This is one data point in the fragmentation of creator-led news distribution, where influencers retain incumbent reach while building meaningful secondary platforms.
Pew's latest numbers show what many of us feel: Bluesky is the space where news folks can breathe again. — Yes, X still holds massive influence, but it's increasingly tied to chaos, toxicity, and unpredictable leadership. Bluesky's rise isn't just about tech. — 📎 www.pewrese…
82% of news influencers identified by @pewresearch.org have an account on X. Far fewer (43%) have an account on Bluesky. Conservative news influencers are especially unlikely to be on Bluesky: Just 15% have an account there. www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/ ... [image]
Liberal influencers lead—69% are on Bluesky, vs. 15% of conservatives — Yet influencers post more on X: 83% post 4+ days a week vs 31% on Bluesky. — While nearly half of Bluesky users don't post regularly at all. — www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/ ... [images]
“The share of news influencers in our sample with a Bluesky account roughly doubled in the four months after Election Day 2024, from 21% beforehand to 43% by March 2025.”
Not too many surprises from this study of large-account influencers still mostly preferring X - but here's what really stood out to me: — Of left-leaning influencers, **there is still a 6 percentage point lead for X, compared to Bluesky**. Fucking depressing. — www.pewresear…
Bluesky has caught on with many news influencers, but X remains popular — Bluesky has become a destination for many news influencers, especially those who lean to the political left, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis. — www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/ ...