Republicans Gain Followers, Dems Losing on Musk's Twitter (Newsmax)
By Eric Mack | Monday, 28 November 2022 12:05 PM EST
Elon Musk's Twitter takeover has done more than just restore banned conservative accounts. It is also allowing conservatives to grow their followers again.
Top Republicans' follower counts grew around three times as many as top Democrats in Congress' counts declined, according to analysis by The Washington Post, using ProPublica's Represent tool.
Notably Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.; Rep. Adam B. Schiff, D-Calif.; and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., lost about 100,000 Twitter followers since Musk bought Twitter, while Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga. and Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, gained more than 300,000.
The Post noticed similar trends when Musk announced his intentions to buy Twitter in April.
Musk tweeted and pinned a parody meme, trolling liberals and their media counterparts on free speech hypocrisy.
"Elon Musk could threaten free speech on Twitter by literally allowing people to speak freely," the meme originated by a satirical website read.
Notably, the tweet was slapped with a disclaimer.
The Post analyst suggests liberals are leaving Twitter, while conservatives are coming back, changing the overall face of the social media platform from more leftist ideology.
The ProPublica's tool noted Republicans gain 8,000 followers on average compared to Democrats' 4,000.
Musk has said that new user signups to the social media platform are at an "all-time high," as he struggles with a mass exodus of advertisers and users fleeing to other platforms over concerns about verification and hate speech.
Signups were averaging over two million per day in the last seven days as of Nov. 16, up 66% compared to the same week in 2021, Musk said in a tweet late Saturday.
He also said that user active minutes were at a record high, averaging nearly 8 billion active minutes per day in the last seven days as of Nov. 15, an increase of 30% in comparison to the same week last year.
Musk has said that Twitter was experiencing a "massive drop in revenue" from the advertiser retreat, blaming a coalition of civil rights groups that has been pressing the platform's top advertisers to take action if he did not protect content moderation.
Activists are urging Twitter's advertisers to issue statements about pulling their ads off the social media platform after Musk lifted the ban on tweets by former President Donald Trump.
Information from Reuters was used in this report.