High-profile Democratic members of Congress have lost hundreds of thousands of Twitter followers since Elon Musk took over the company a month ago, according to a new analysis.
SO WHAT
Democrats are threatening to make Musk pay for not playing by their rules.
THE CHART
Even as congressional Democrats have lost an average of 4,000 followers each on Musk’s watch, their Republican colleagues have gotten an average 8,000-follower boost, The Washington Post reported Sunday based on an analysis of ProPublica data.
“Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) all lost about 100,000 Twitter followers in the first three weeks of Musk’s ownership of Twitter, while Republican Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) and Jim Jordan (Ohio) gained more than 300,000 each,” the Post found.
- One Democrat who bucked the trend was Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., who gained tens of thousands of followers ahead of his election as House leader Wednesday.ty
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING
The Post suggested that Democrats’ shrinking Twitter followings could indicate that Musk, the world’s richest man, has followed through on his pledge to purge the site of “bots,” or fraudulent accounts.
- “Still, the pattern suggests that tens of thousands of liberals may be leaving the site while conservatives are joining or becoming more active, shifting the demographics of the site under Musk’s ownership,” the reporters concluded.
- Prominent Republican politicians began adding thousands of followers in late April, when Musk announced his intention to buy Twitter and correct its liberal moderation bias in the name of “free speech.”
- Musk’s takeover of the company on Oct. 28 has been widely decried on the left for allegedly empowering right-wing extremists and other purveyors of misinformation.
WHAT THEY’RE DOING
The Biden administration has launched unspecified investigations of Musk’s $44-billion purchase of Twitter, and White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday that “we’re certainly keeping an eye on” Twitter’s growth in users and handling of “misinformation” and “hate” on the platform.
- President Joe Biden and Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., have called for Musk’s foreign ties to be investigated, and Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., has demanded Musk explain how the Post was able to work with him to impersonate his account.
- “Perhaps it is because your real account sounds like a parody?” Musk suggested in a tweet.
