Republican politicians have gained Twitter followers in the hundreds of thousands while Democrats saw plummeting followers after billionaire and Tesla founder Elon Musk took over the social media platform, according to The Washington Post.
Republicans gained 8,000 followers on average while Democrats lost 4,000 in the weeks after the takeover, according to the Post’s analysis of ProPublica data. The shift began abruptly the week of Musk’s Oct. 27 Twitter takeover; accounts analyzed by the Post had been fairly stagnant from Sept. 30 to Oct. 24.
Republican Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Republican Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan both gained more than 300,000 followers in the three weeks after the Musk takeover, while Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Democratic California Rep. Adam Schiff and Democratic Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders all lost about 100,000, according to the Post. (RELATED: Elon Musk Says He Could Create ‘Alternative Phone’ If Apple & Google Boot Twitter From App Store)
The mass deletion of bot accounts could account for the trend, as could a possible exodus of left-leaning Twitter users from the platform or the entry of new conservatives, according to the Post, although not all followers of politicians are supporters.
“Clearly something was going on at Twitter,” Greene’s spokesman told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “It’s the only explanation for the massive growth of her account. Who knows what her follower account would be if conservatives had been treated fairly.”
Greene’s personal Twitter account was permanently suspended in January for repeated violations of the platform’s COVID-19 misinformation policy and was reinstated under Musk’s leadership. She has requested that Musk share internal communications about the company’s past decisions to make permanent bans of prominent accounts.
🙋♀️
I’d like to invite Elon to share that with those of us who were permanently banned at an Oversight Hearing in the 118th Congress.
That would be very kind of him and helpful in order to know who else we should invite.
(subpoena) https://t.co/TRWJmdvMYr— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) November 26, 2022
Republican accounts also saw a large surge in followers in April amid rumors that Musk’s purchase of the site was being finalized; the platform claimed the sudden change was organic, while some conservative users said the platform had been throttling their accounts but stopped ahead of Musk’s takeover.
Twitter, Jordan, Schiff, Warren and Sanders did not respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.
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