Bluesky users pushed back hard this weekend against a new AI-powered feed tool, blocking the account for Attie tens of thousands of times and underscoring the platform’s strong anti-AI streak.
According to ClearSky analytics, Attie — an experimental feed-building app that launched publicly on Saturday — has been blocked about 125,000 times since its debut. That makes it the second-most-blocked account on the network, trailing only U.S. Senator and Vice Presidential candidate JD Vance, whose profile holds the top spot at roughly 180,684 blocks. Attie’s block total also outpaces high-profile government accounts such as the White House and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), each blocked by more than 100,000 users.
Built by The Atmosphere, a team led by former Bluesky CEO Jay Graber, Attie uses Bluesky’s AT Protocol — the decentralized, interoperable infrastructure that powers the network — to assemble personalized feeds. Users type a short description of the posts or topics they want, and Attie’s AI searches across Bluesky to curate a custom stream matching that request. The team framed the launch as a convenience and a way to improve discovery on the upstart platform.
But the feature met near-immediate backlash. Some users celebrated the mass-blocking: “It would be kinda neat if Attie became the most-blocked account,” author Dani Finn wrote, while writer-artist Dan Lansdowne noted the tool’s rapid unpopularity after “only about 27 hours.” Others framed the rollout as a betrayal of Bluesky’s original appeal. Illustrator Marco Alfaro warned that many users migrated to Bluesky “to get away from Twitter’s AI,” arguing Attie erodes what made Bluesky attractive. Tech YouTuber Sam Thibault criticized the move as an example of a platform shifting toward perceived market demands instead of addressing lingering core issues.
The reaction highlights a cultural and technical divide on Bluesky. Unlike X, which does not publish blocking metrics, Bluesky’s ecosystem makes blocking and shared blocklists a central, user-driven moderation mechanism. Frequent use of blocking as a filter gives the community a strong, visible means to exclude accounts they dislike — and to push back against features they see as unwelcome.
Bluesky has acknowledged user concerns. Jay Graber — now the company’s chief innovation officer — told Decrypt, “We understand that some of our users have genuine concerns about how LLMs work and the impact they are having on our society. We take those concerns seriously.”
Editor’s note: This story was updated to include comment from Bluesky.
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