Trump supporters are furious they’re losing Twitter followers after Capitol riots

Right-wing pundits and politicians are furious they’re suddenly losing thousands of Twitter followers.

Key Republican figures like Mike Pompeo and Sarah Huckabee Sanders have decried the shift in their follower counts, with the former tweeting:

“I’ve lost 50k+ followers this week. The radical left and their big tech allies cannot marginalise, censor or silence the American people. This is not China, this is the United States of America, and we are a free country.”

Pompeo, meanwhile, accused Twitter of creating an “echo chamber”, while Fox News presenter Brian Kilmeade claimed the company is trying to “please Joe Biden”.

What the sudden drop implies about their fan bases was apparently lost on each of them.

After the Capitol riot, Twitter permanently banned Trump and may have sharpened up their enforcement of harm and harassment policies, too.

A spokesperson for Twitter reportedly told NBC:

“We’ve been clear that we will take strong enforcement action on behaviour that has the potential to lead to offline harm, and given the renewed potential for violence surrounding this type of behaviour in the coming days, we will permanently suspend accounts that are solely dedicated to sharing QAnon content.”

So, as AOC put it, it’s probably not a good idea to advertise that you’re losing followers “the moment Twitter starts taking down Neo-Nazis and violent insurrectionists”. It’s also possible some of the deleted accounts were bots.

Aside from Pompeo and Sanders, other notable figures have highlighted their drop in followers.

And plenty of people have hit back at them, pointing out that their priorities are seriously skewed.

indy100 have asked Twitter why so many right-wing followings are dropping now and we’ll update you if we get a response.