Twitter on Tuesday confirmed that the dramatic fluctuations in the number of followers since Elon Musk’s takeover was announced was organic, and not due to any change in their policies – as right wingers online noted a surge in followers, and left-leaning figures saw their numbers plummet.
Among the biggest winners was Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, who on Tuesday accumulated 141,566 new followers to his two million tally.
He praised Musk’s bid for Twitter, calling it ‘a good deal for shareholders’ and saying it ‘raises the prospect that the platform will be a place where free speech can thrive, not a tool for narrative enforcement.’
Donald Trump Jr, who has 7.7 million followers, also saw a big surge in support, with 87,296 new names.
Donald Trump Jr, pictured last week campaigning for Ohio senate candidate J.D. Vance, was among the biggest winners in the Twitter follower fluctuations
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Ron DeSantis, pictured on Friday, saw a surge in follower numbers on Tuesday
The biggest losers included New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, with 12.9 million – who saw her followers drop by 20,725.
Barack Obama, who tops the Twitter global leaderboard with 131.7 million followers, also saw a drop, with 5,063 fewer followers than before Musk’s announcement.
Justin Bieber, with 114 million, is in second place, followed by Katy Perry with 109 million.
‘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,’ Twitter said in a statement.
A spokesperson at Twitter told NBC News that the accounts with the most severe drop-offs in followers were ‘high-profile accounts.’
And the pattern was widely repeated: right wingers gained, while left wingers lost.
Barack Obama, the most followed person in the world with 131 million followers, saw a decrease in followers since Musk’s Monday announcement
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, pictured on Sunday in Staten Island, saw her followers drop by 20,725 on Tuesday
Marjorie Taylor Greene, the abrasive Georgia representative, saw her tally rise by 41,181 on Tuesday, while her friend Matt Gaetz, the firebrand Florida congressman, went up 24,929.
‘It really is something how conservative accounts are getting massive follower increases today….’ Gaetz tweeted on Tuesday.
Rachel Maddow, the MSNBC anchor beloved by the left, lost 18,648 followers on Tuesday, while Fox News rival Tucker Carlson won 129,873.
The same was true internationally: Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, saw his total rise 65,268 to over 7.7 million, while Canada’s leftist prime minister, Justin Trudeau, was down 2,833 to six million.
The rises and falls were likely due to left-leaning Twitter users closing their accounts, following Musk’s takeover.
With the 50-year-old saying he wanted to make Twitter a more open platform for debate, many suspected he could reinstate Donald Trump’s account and lift restrictions on hate speech.
Taylor Green tweeted a list of those currently banned for spreading misinformation or inciting violence.
‘Bring back President Trump,’ she said.
‘Bring back my personal account. Bring back Dr. Robert Malone. Bring back Alex Jones.
‘Bring back Milo Yiannopoulos. Bring back the cancelled nation. Bring back freedom of speech.
‘Bring back America!’
Celebrities such as Jameela Jamil announced they would no longer use the platform.
Right-leaning users of social media could also have reactivated dormant accounts which they never used, or signed up to the platform for the first time.
Yet Trump Jr said he suspected there was more to the fluctuation than that.
He repeated widespread right-wing speculation that their Twitter follower counts had been artificially suppressed, to try and downplay their support and influence.
He also suggested that the controls were being lifted, before Musk brought in new management, to avoid an embarrassing expose of practices.
‘While I’m awesome and totally deserving of 87,000 new followers a day it seems that someone took the shackles off my account. Wonder if they’re burning the evidence before new mgmt comes in?’
And conservative podcaster Dana Loesch echoed Trump Jr’s speculation.
‘Noticing an increase in followers and engagement after losing huge chunks (or static follower count for weeks on end) for the past few years,’ she tweeted.
‘Also seeing tweets from people I whose accounts I never see and am not having to refollow other conservatives repeatedly.
‘It’s too soon for Musk to have done this but I’m wondering if something was changed by those seeking to minimize their fingerprint ahead of potential transparency.’