Social media giant Twitter pushed back on Tuesday against President Donald Trump’s claims that it is making it more difficult to follow his account because of its own liberal bias. According to the Wrap , a spokesperson for the company said Trump’s claim just isn’t true.
On Tuesday morning, the president turned to a familiar tactic of blaming people and institutions with which he doesn’t agree of harboring a liberal bias against him. Without evidence, he claimed it was a fact that Twitter had made it more difficult for users to follow his account and accused them of removing “many” followers.
“ Facebook , Twitter and Google are so biased toward the Dems it is ridiculous! Twitter, in fact, has made it much more difficult for people to join @realDonaldTrump,” he wrote.
“They have removed many names & greatly slowed the level and speed of increase. They have acknowledged-done NOTHING!”
Twitter pushed back, saying that it isn’t interested in punishing accounts based on political leanings or affiliation. When a prominent account sees fewer followers – which isn’t the case with Trump’s account, which has steadily increased over the past few months – it is because fake accounts have been removed.
“Our focus is on the health of the service, and that includes work to remove fake accounts to prevent malicious behavior,” a Twitter spokesperson said.
“Many prominent accounts have seen follower counts drop, but the result is higher confidence that the followers they have are real, engaged people.”
Facebook, Twitter and Google are so biased toward the Dems it is ridiculous! Twitter, in fact, has made it much more difficult for people to join @realDonaldTrump . They have removed many names & greatly slowed the level and speed of increase. They have acknowledged-done NOTHING!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 18, 2018
The numbers support Twitter’s claims. Former President Barack Obama, who has the third most popular account on the social media site, lost 3 million followers in July. Trump’s account, meanwhile, has increased from 55.6 million followers last summer to 55.6 million followers today, losing 300,000 after the account purge in July. Ashton Kutcher lost more than a million followers in that same month, and Oprah lost 1.4 million in just a few days.
The site has been removing accounts that it believes to be suspicious or fake since July in an effort to ensure that users are authentic. Overall, the site has seen an increase in active users by 9 percent, though it lost 9 million users in the third quarter after cracking down on fake and bot accounts.
Still, it isn’t the first time that the POTUS has accused Twitter of bias. On October 26, he claimed, again without evidence, that the social media site had removed followers and “stifled growth,” saying that his account used to be a “Rocket Ship” but was now just a “Blimp.”
