Some of Twitter's most high-profile accounts have lost hundreds of thousands of followers since it became clear that Twitter would be sold to Tesla billionaire Elon Musk.
Fortune writes that one of the first to report a major drop was Shannon Watts, an advocate for more restrictive gun laws.
On April 26, she tweeted that she lost over a thousand followers in one day.
Then followed the White House employees and gun control activists.
Auschwitz Museum lost followers
According to Fortune, American left-wing politicians and profiles such as Michelle Obama, Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez lost over 10,000 followers on Tuesday, while right-wing profiles such as Marjorie Taylor Greene, Newt Gingrich, Ted Cruz and Laura Ingraham gained more, the newspaper writes with reference to social the media analysis service Socialblade.
Republican politician Ted Cruz had more than 40,000 new followers on Tuesday, according to Socialblade, and NBC News reports that Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene increased the following on her official account by almost 100,000. Taylor Greene's private account was permanently shut down from Twitter earlier this year. statements she made about covid-19.
Barely a week ago, she testified in court about statements she made in connection with the storming of the Capitol in January 2021.
But the relocation is not just political: the Auschwitz Museum has also lost 35,000 followers and pop star Katy Perry has lost over 200,000. Star Wars actor Mark Hamill also lost followers.
No "cleaning" of accounts
Also in 2018, many large accounts lost large numbers of followers after Twitter cleared out inactive accounts and cured.
However, that does not seem to be the case this time.
On Tuesday, the company wrote in a statement that changes are due to the followers themselves:
"Most of these changes appear to be due to an increase in new accounts and the closure of existing ones"
When it became clear that Musk would be allowed to buy Twitter, he wrote on the platform: "I hope that even my harshest critics stay on Twitter, because that is the meaning of freedom of speech."