‘Dilbert’ Creator Scott Adams: Twitter Is Shadow Banning Me
Cartoonist Scott Adams, the creator of the popular Dilbert comic strip, believes that Twitter may be shadow banning his tweets, possibly for political reasons.
Shadow banning essentially means that tweets are prevented in some way from reaching all of his 124,000 followers.
Adams also noted that his girlfriend’s Instagram blue verification check mark mysteriously disappeared on Inauguration Day, only to pop back up a few days later with no explanation.
Through his blog, Periscope broadcasts, and many media appearances, Adams, 59, has outlined how he evolved into a big fan of “master persuader” Donald Trump although not necessarily on the issues but for his skill set.
During the primary campaign, Trump — according to trained hypnotist Adams — operated like a 3-D chess master (while everyone else was playing at best 2-D) who is also a master of negotiation, persuasion, and of the “linguistic kill shot.”
Adams predicted that Trump would win the general election in a landslide, which proved accurate at least insofar as the Electoral College was concerned, and contrary to the forecasts of most news agencies, pollsters, and pundits.
Adams hopped off the Trump train when the Access Hollywood scandal broke and backpedaled on his long-time landslide prediction, but he climbed back aboard in late October.
In a blog post in which he suggested that it may be necessary for the government to regulate social media networks to some degree to ensure freedom of speech, Adams wrote, in part, about the alleged shadow banning, which may be motivated by politics.
“For example, Twitter is apparently ‘shadowbanning’ me because of my past Trump tweets, or so I assume. That means my tweets only go out to a subset of my followers. The rest don’t know I tweeted. My followers tell me this is the case. They have to visit my timeline to see my tweets…Realistically, can I quit Twitter and be a successful media personality without it? Not in today’s world…I can’t be 100% sure that Twitter is shadowbanning me to limit my political speech. They might have a bug in their system, for example. But it would be a big coincidence if they are not, given how many Trump supporters were targeted by Twitter in the past year…”
The possible shadow banning was among the topics discussed on Scott Adams’ Periscope broadcast this morning.
Coffee with Scott Adams https://t.co/Niz5ybqrC2
— Scott Adams (@ScottAdamsSays) January 30, 2017
The author of How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big, among other books, also discussed how girlfriend Kristina Basham abruptly lost (and then regained) her verification badge on an Instagram account that has almost 3 million followers.
“I can’t be 100% sure my girlfriend is being punished by Facebook/Instagram for her association with me. But it seems like a big coincidence that she lost the verification on Inauguration Day,” Adams added.
Read the entire essay on his blog to obtain the full context and draw your own conclusions.
My girlfriend Kristina just got her blue verification badge back from Instagram. No explanation provided: https://t.co/7x3XSf2ik4 pic.twitter.com/GDJ70Nx36u
— Scott Adams (@ScottAdamsSays) January 28, 2017
Parenthetically, on his Periscope live stream of the presidential swearing-in ceremony on January 20, Scott Adams broke into tears as Trump took the oath.
In evaluating the controversial temporary immigration ban through a “persuasion filter,” Scott Adams maintains President Trump, by virtue of his negotiation acumen, will eventually come up with a refugee policy that will be acceptable to both the left and the right. He also claims that violent, anti-Trump protesters who see the president as fitting into their preconceived notions of despotism could theoretically and ironically bring about a police state, something that they evidently seek to prevent.
Separately, in June of 2016, SourceFed through a viral video claimed that Google was engaged in manipulating search results through the autocomplete function in favor of Hillary Clinton, which the search engine denied. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange also alleged that the social media giant was actively trying to help Clinton get elected as U.S. president.
[Featured Image by Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP Images]
