Since Elon Musk’s $44 billion purchase of Twitter, a number of prominent Twitter users have lost — or acquired — tens of thousands of followers.
Soon after, a slew of other well-known, blue-ticked users complained about the same thing. Neera Tanden, President Joe Biden’s senior adviser and staff secretary, gun control activist David Hogg, and Star Wars actor Mark Hamill all tweeted that they had lost thousands of followers since the deal was disclosed.
Conservative and right-wing accounts, on the other hand, were largely absent from the list of people complaining about a loss of Twitter followers. Indeed, several members of this group have gained followers in the recent 24 hours.
According to statistics from social media analytics tracker SocialBlade, liberals like Michelle Obama, Bernie Sanders, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez all lost over 10,000 followers overnight, while conservatives like Ted Cruz, Newt Gingrich, and Laura Ingraham gained.
While Twitter did not disclose precise numbers, the company said it was looking into “fluctuations in follower counts” and classified the rush of account cancellations as “organic,” according to NBC News, which was the first to report on the action.
According to a Twitter spokesperson who requested anonymity, “high-profile accounts” are losing the most followers. PEOPLE reached out to Twitter for comment, but no one responded right away.
According to Business Insider, many of the accounts that witnessed the biggest drops belonged to popular individuals with left-leaning political beliefs.
President Joe Biden, who acquires roughly 15,000 followers per day on average, lost 5,610 followers on Tuesday, according to the site, which cited SocialBlade figures. Meanwhile, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York congresswoman, had lost over 37,000 followers by Tuesday.
According to NBC News, former President Barack Obama, who still has the most Twitter followers, has lost over 300,000 followers since Monday’s revelation. He has roughly 131.7 million followers as of Wednesday afternoon.
Following the takeover news, actor Mark Hamill, an outspoken critic of former President Donald Trump and his administration, tweeted that he had lost 8,000 followers “in the last few of hours.”
NBC News and Business Insider, on the other hand, reported that a number of major accounts on the right have gained a considerable number of new followers in the same time frame.
Controversial According to NBC, Georgia senator Marjorie Taylor Greene had 632,000 followers by Tuesday evening, up from 539,000 on Sunday. Her total has already surpassed 669,000 as of Wednesday afternoon.
Business Insider claimed that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis got over 141,000 new followers on Tuesday, using statistics from SocialBlade. According to the outlet, he obtains an average of just over 5,000 followers per day.
The news that Musk is buying Twitter has divided users, with many referring to Musk’s repeated pronouncements praising the platform’s support for free expression.
While some Republicans hope Trump will be allowed back on the platform, despite Trump’s claims to the contrary, others, including a number of Democrats, are concerned about what a Musk takeover will imply for the corporation, which is poised to become privately held.
It’s unclear whether the changes in follower count are due to a mass exodus of Twitter users abandoning the site as a result of the ownership transition, or if bots were removed overnight.
Many promised to flee the platform prior to Musk’s acquisition, similar to threats of moving abroad—often to Canada—if an unpopular candidate won the presidential election.
On the other hand, right-wingers who have been kicked off Twitter by past leadership, such as Rep. Taylor Greene, have been anxiously anticipating a return to a new and less restrictive Twitter, which Musk describes as a “digital town square.”
