President Trump on Tuesday launched an attack on social media platforms, accusing them of bias against him, and specifically accused Twitter of making it harder to follow him while cutting down his follower count. He delivered these charges, ironically, on Twitter itself.
“Facebook, Twitter and Google are so biased toward the Dems it is ridiculous!,” the president tweeted Tuesday morning. “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!”
Trump currently has over 56 million Twitter followers, all of which are people who found some way to “join” him. He has also, according to Business Insider , gained more than 1.5 million followers since the start of October. So if Twitter is attempting to suppress the president’s follower count, they may not be doing it very effectively.
According to FriendorFollow , Trump has the 16th-most followers of any user on Twitter, right behind Britney Spears and ahead of Twitter’s own Twitter account. Former President Barack Obama has over 100 million followers, placing him third on the list behind Katy Perry and Justin Bieber, and just ahead of Rihanna, Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga.
Twitter has, this year, cut down on bots and other illegitimate accounts, which may explain the fluctuating follower counts of many major Twitter accounts.
It’s unclear the source of Trump’s accusations, but conservatives have often accused social media networks of bias against them, with Twitter itself also frequently criticized for banning right-wing conspiracy theorists such as Alex Jones and Laura Loomer. Republican lawmakers also confronted Google CEO Sundar Pichai in a public hearing last week, accusing the company of rigging search results to hurt the GOP. And Facebook has faced a series of controversies in the last few years related to what it allows on its platform.
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
Trump joined Twitter in 2009, and use of the platform has been key to his political rise. He frequently used the platform to assail his predecessor Obama, including his pushing of the “birther” conspiracy and continued using it throughout his campaign and eventual presidency. And despite his claims of bias and subterfuge, Twitter has never banned or suspended Trump’s account.
However, courts have used Trump’s tweets to rule against him on at least a couple of decisions, and another court this year ruled that Trump as president is not legally allowed to block Twitter followers.
Despite past tweets from the president assailing Twitter’s financial performance, the company actually had an outstanding year in 2018, per additional reporting from Business Insider . Twitter’s stock has risen over 50 percent this year, even as Facebook’s has plunged.