As Elon Musk Takes Over Twitter, Mass Deactivations Have Taken Place
High profile accounts losing thousands of followers have been reported.
Elon Musk has finally succeeded in buying Twitter. And things are changing fast. It has been reported that many high-profile accounts on Twitter lost thousands of followers after the takeover. The company says that the ‘fluctuations in follower counts are due to ‘organic’ account closures.
Mass deactivations on Twitter
Many renowned people have lost followers on Twitter. Former US President Barack Obama, who has the highest number of followers (131.7 million), has lost over 300,000 after the Musk takeover was confirmed on Monday. Singer Katy Perry, who is the third-most-followed account, also lost more than 200,000 followers.
Some accounts (right-wing politicians particularly) are also gaining followers too quickly. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s followers rose from 539,000 followers a day before the Musk buyout to 632,000 by Tuesday evening.
Off the back of the strange pattern, Rep. Matt Gaetz, who is also a close ally of former President Donald Trump – tweeted: “It really is something how conservative accounts are getting massive follower increases today.”
Another right-wing populist, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, gained almost 90,000 followers on the day after the announcement of Musk’s takeover.
Though Twitter hasn’t provided the number of accounts that have been closed or activated since the takeover day- Monday, the company has confirmed that it was looking into the ‘recent fluctuations in follower counts.’
In a statement, Twitter said, “While we continue to take action on accounts that violate our spam policy which can affect follower counts, these fluctuations appear to largely be a result of an increase in new account creation and deactivation.” A spokesperson of the company also said the accounts experiencing the most severe drop-offs in followers were ‘high-profile accounts.’
Previously, Musk had vowed to make Twitter a home for ‘free speech’ while also ‘defeating the spam bots.’ In the statement announcing the agreement, Musk said: “Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated. I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spambots, and authenticating all humans. Twitter has tremendous potential – I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it.”
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