Trump tweets displeasure at Twitter follower drop

President Donald Trump accused Twitter of targeting his followers for removal from the social media platform, amid complaints by conservatives that social media companies have been discriminating against right-wing voices. "Twitter has removed many people from my account and, more importantly, they have seemingly done something that makes it much harder to join--they have stifled growth to a point where it is obvious to all," Trump said in a tweet Friday. "A few weeks ago it was a Rocket Ship, now it is a Blimp! Total Bias?" Twitter has removed many people from my account and, more importantly, they have seemingly done something that makes it much harder to join - they have stifled growth to a point where it is obvious to all. A few weeks ago it was a Rocket Ship, now it is a Blimp! Total Bias? Twitter has been on a housecleaning spree in recent months in order to eliminate manipulative, fake and abusive content. In July it began removing tens of millions of suspicious accounts from users' followers. The purge was an effort to help rid the site of a widespread form of social media fraud that made it possible for users to bolster their social influence, political activism or entertainment careers by inflating their followers on social media with fake accounts. Twitter said at the time that accounts with a large number of followers would see a more significant drop. Trump, one of the social-media company's most visible tweeters, lost about 300,000 followers, or more than half of one percent after amassing a high of 53.4 million. He has about 55.3 million followers today. Trump wasn't the only high-profile tweeter affected by the purge. Jack Dorsey, the company's chief executive officer, said he lost about 200,000 followers as a result of the crackdown. Twitter reported Thursday that average monthly active users drop by 9 million to 326 million. The company said those trends will continue and lead to another decline in monthly users for the fourth quarter. But the San Francisco-based company's stock jumped the most in eight months following the statement, which also showed third-quarter earnings and revenue topped estimates amid higher spending from advertisers. --Bloomberg News

Trump tweets displeasure at Twitter follower drop

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