The NFL directed the New England Patriots to delete its Bluesky account, the team’s VP of content Fred Kirsch said on a podcast.
Kirsch said on a January 16 episode of Patriots Unfiltered that while the team “briefly” had a Bluesky account, they had to take it down because it’s “not an approved social media platform for the NFL yet.”
Bluesky was founded as a research initiative by Jack Dorsey in 2019 but really emerged as an alternative to Elon Musk’s X and shot up in popularity after November’s presidential election. It crossed 25 million users last month, as users became dismayed with Musk’s shift to the right.
Still, several sports leagues still rely on X for accessing large fan bases. The NFL also has an ongoing content partnership with X that dates back to 2013. An NFL spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
