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Don Jr, Other Conservatives, Notice Dramatic Increase In Twitter Followers After Musk Purchase

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OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.


Something appears to have changed at Twitter since it was announced that the company has accepted the bid of Elon Musk to become the new owner.

Donald Trump Jr. and other prominent conservatives, including this writer, have seen dramatic increases in their Twitter follower count.

At the same time Democrats like former President Obama as well as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have seen their follower count slumping, The Daily Mail reported.

“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?” he said with a chart showing his follower count growth.

Don Jr’s account had grown by between 5,000 and 10,000 tweets a day in recent weeks, with the spike in the wake of Musk’s announcement immediately obvious.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis also saw a huge 141,566 people on Tuesday, according to SocialBlade statistics. That is a vast increase on the 5,000-or-so followers the popular GOP governor generally gains in the average day.

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.’

Conservative talk show host Dana Loesch, who’s long complained of account suppression, saw her followers surge by about 9,000 on Tuesday.

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By comparison, she was gaining a few hundred new followers a day prior to Musk’s acquisition.

“Noticing an increase in followers and engagement after losing huge chunks (or static follower count for weeks on end) for the past few years. Also seeing tweets from people I whose accounts I never see and am not having to refollow other conservatives repeatedly,” DanaLoesch said.

“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,” she said.

“Kind of as a joke I took screenshots of my follower count for almost two years after I lost 20k followers per day back in 2020. It’s been interesting to see the difference within the past 24 hours,” she said.

“It really is something how conservative accounts are getting massive follower increases today….,” Rep. Matt Gaetz said.

Musk, the soon-to-be new owner of Twitter, issued a press release upon his purchase of the platform and he garnered a plethora of responses from those who are melting down, like “All In The Family” star Rob Reiner.

“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,” he said. “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.”

That simple tweet, Which made the purchase official, only added to the absolute meltdown of people who appear to be terrified of a platform that allows free speech.

“Looks like I’m about to say goodbye to Twitter as well. I’ve been pulling back a bit from social media anyway. This will be just the push I need to go all the way on this app,” New York Times writer Charles M. Blow said.

Actress Yvette Nicole Brown joined Blow and said she was leaving to join another network hardly anyone has ever heard of.

“I’m leaving too friend. I joined a site called http://counter.social it appears to be fighting against what @twitter is about to become,” she said.

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“I will not stay on Twitter if Elon Musk owns it,” former New York Times editorial board member Mira Kamdar said.

https://twitter.com/mirakamdar/status/1518472364215910400

Former World Wrestling Entertainment World Heavyweight Champion Mick Foley also showed his snowflake side.

“I’ll be giving some serious thought to leaving @Twitter for good in the near future. I do not have a good feeling about where this platform is heading,” he said before making several more tweets about where he is going to be appearing next.

Actor and director Rob Reiner had a total meltdown thinking that Musk may allow former President Donald Trump on the platform.

“Now that Elon Musk is buying Twitter, the question for all of us is: Will he allow a Criminal who used this platform to lie and spread disinformation to try to overthrow the US Government to return and continue his Criminal activity? And if he does, how do we combat it?” he said.

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And then there was racial activist Shaun King. Who has since deleted his Twitter account, who accused Musk of purchasing the company for white supremacy.

“At its root, [Elon Musk] wanting to purchase Twitter is not about left vs right,” he said. “It’s about white power.”

“The man was raised in Apartheid by a white nationalist,” the activist said. “He’s upset that Twitter won’t allow white nationalists to target/harass people. That’s his definition of free speech.”

“Elon Musk has openly called himself a ‘free speech absolutist’ and said that he wants to create a space where anything can be said about anyone,” he said. “That’s why white nationalists are giddy today. Here on Twitter and other platforms that I track daily. It’s dangerous.”

“And listen, I don’t even like the Democratic Party,” he said. “So for me, this isn’t about left vs right. Not at all. It’s about how the richest man in the world, a son of Apartheid, raised by a white nationalist, wants to be sure his speech, and that of other white men, isn’t censored.”

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