A strange set of starter packs
In which numerous popular Bluesky accounts gain large numbers of low quality followers after being added to starter packs created by an account no one has heard of
Over the last three months, 27 Bluesky accounts belonging to prominent technology reporters and news organizations experienced a rapid uptick in follows from newly-created accounts with little or no content. While it is not unusual for new Bluesky users to follow well-known journalists and media outlets, this sudden large increase in follow activity from new accounts is notable and anomalous. The shift in follower growth pattern corresponds to the journalists and news outlets being added to a starter pack created in October 2025 by an obscure account that has yet to post anything whatsoever.
As it turns out, there is a Bluesky starter pack comprised of the exact set of 27 tech media accounts that experienced the October 2025 shift in follower growth patterns. This starter pack, with the name “Tech News”, was created on October 1st, 2025, by @bskystarterpack.bsky.social, a Bluesky account with a default profile image and zero posts. While every single account added to this pack is already listed in dozens or hundreds of other starter packs, only this one appears to have been accompanied by a corresponding influx of low quality followers.
The “Tech News” starter pack is far from the only starter pack created by @bskystarterpack.bsky.social. As of the time of this writing, the account has created 24 themed starter packs, with titles ranging from “Economics” to “Bluesky Comedians” to “Animals & Wildlife”, and everything in between. There is some overlap between the starter packs; for instance, Wired’s official Bluesky account has been added to both the “Tech News” and “Major News Outlets” packs.
19 of the 24 starter packs created by @bskystarterpack.bsky.social were created over the span of exactly an hour on October 1st, 2025, with the remaining five created between October 2nd, 2025, and January 24th, 2026. While most users that create starter packs also post links to them, the operator of the @bskystarterpack.bsky.social account has yet to promote any of their starter packs, or indeed post anything at all. The majority of these starter packs have also never been shared on Bluesky by any other user.
The effect of these starter packs on the follower growth patterns of the accounts listed in the packs is significant. In the case of all but two of the @bskystarterpack.bsky.social starter packs (“Writers & Authors” and “Major News Outlets”), addition to the starter packs was accompanied by drastic increases in back-to-back follows from new accounts and accounts created within an hour of one another. In many cases, these new followers have few or no posts, either presently or at the time of their creation.
As often happens with spammy social media operations, some of the low quality followers associated with the shady starter packs use plagiarized profile photos. Many of these images have repeatedly been used for fake accounts on a variety of websites, and some are even inventoried on sites that maintain lists of photographs frequently used for scams. Depending on the image, both Google and TinEye were occasionally useful in tracking down other occurrences of the photos used by the accounts.
Although many of the followers associated with the starter packs have no posts at all, some have posted, and some of their posts contain additional evidence of spam and inauthenticity. Account sales operations are a recurring theme, with available merchandise ranging from social media and email accounts to verified accounts with payment processing platforms such as Paypal and Cashapp; aged Gmail accounts seem to be a particularly common piece of merchandise. In some cases, these account sales services are advertised using the same graphics by multiple accounts.
The post-starter pack followers also contain several clusters of link spam accounts: groups of similar-looking accounts which post little or no original content and instead simply spam Bluesky with links to obscure websites, posted in the same order by each account. The above collage of posts linking to wealthhg(dot)com is representative of the phenomenon; similar posting patterns revolving around other websites turn up as well.
Obvious scams also turn up among the posts from the low quality followers summoned by the starter packs. These scams include a variety of posts inviting the reader to comment on what they would do if they suddenly received a large sum of money, presumably for the purpose of luring potential marks into providing financial account information. Anecdotal evidence from users indicates that similar scam attempts are also being made via direct message.
The presence of a variety of different types of spam suggests that, rather than all belonging to a single network operated by a single individual, the various low quality accounts following the major accounts listed in the starter packs include a variety of spam networks, potentially operated by a variety of entities.