He’ll have to wait just like everybody else.
Heads of Late
While many users are still clamoring to get an invite to former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s Twitter clone Bluesky, there are some VIPs that are being refused outright at the door.
The emerging Twitter competitor has announced that it will not allow “heads of state” on the platform just yet, Fortune reports, meaning leaders like US president Joe Biden will have to patiently wait for their turn (per Insider, Biden is on the waitlist.)
In a post on its platform, Bluesky’s official account revealed last week that its “current policy is that we cannot accommodate heads of state to join us in our beta yet.”
That’s not exactly surprising. The social media platform of roughly 60,000 users still has a lot of work to do as it races to establish a fully-fledged set of features as well as the rules and regulations that govern it.
At the same time, though, keeping VIPs like Biden out could keep the platform from getting the most out of its moment in the limelight.
Invite Only
By limiting access to invite-only, Bluesky is hoping to buy itself more time — but the demand is clearly there. The company’s waitlist currently has some 1.2 million people on it, according to Fortune.
In its post last week, Bluesky also asked users to please let them know before inviting more prominent figures, to avoid the system from becoming overloaded.
Some high-profile figures that have already joined include US representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and CNN anchor Jake Tapper, who used the word “skeet” — a popular amalgam of “sky” and “tweet” — during a broadcast interview last week.
Meanwhile on Twitter, CEO Elon Musk has continued to push users towards an $8-a-month subscription to keep the lights on, which has resulted in plenty of mayhem.
Whether Bluesky will fare better remains to be seen. The team of just nine employees plus contractors has a lot of work ahead before it can have presidents skeeting to their hearts’ content.
More on Bluesky: Jack Dorsey Sounds Alarmed by Elon Musk’s Erratic Behavior at Twitter