Who Are the Winners and Losers of Elon’s Twitter Takeover?
One of the unexpected effects of Elon Musk’s $44 billion Twitter purchase is that non-woke and right-of-centre accounts on the platform have suddenly surged in popularity, while woke and left-of-centre accounts have lost followers. MailOnline has more.
Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter appears to have led to a split in users’ fortunes along ideological lines – with conservative figures gaining followers while leading ‘Wokerati’ go in the opposite direction.
The Tesla founder’s $44 billion bid was unanimously accepted by Twitter’s board on Monday. Shortly afterwards, prominent American right-wingers, such as Donald Trump’s son, Don Jr., saw their follower counts shoot up while Democrats, like the congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, suffered falls.
The same dynamic is occurring in the U.K., with statistics from Social Blade showing Nigel Farage added 3,912 followers yesterday as he enjoyed his most successful period for at least two weeks – while left-wing talking heads James O’Brien and Owen Jones lost 241 and 546 each.
J.K. Rowling, despite being a critic of the Conservative party, has become unpopular with many left-wing Twitterati due to her stance on gender issues. Yesterday, she saw her followers increase for the first time in weeks.
Meanwhile, Harry Potter star Emma Watson appeared to be losing her magic touch – down 5,168 yesterday – while former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn shed 850 followers and Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, 146. Actress Jameela Jamil, who has threatened to leave Twitter over Musk’s takeover, lost 615.
The picture was far rosier for right-wing figures, with journalists Douglas Murray, Fraser Nelson, Toby Young and Julia Hartley-Brewer seeing their follower counts rise 4,784, 24, 286 and 655 consecutively.
The fluctuation in follower numbers in the U.S. triggered a wave of theories seeking to explain the phenomenon.
Some suggested ‘free speech absolutist’ Musk’s takeover prompted developers to change the social media giant’s algorithm to highlight conservative accounts and suppress left-leaning ones – a theory that was slapped down by people who pointed out that Musk will not officially complete his purchase of the platform for months.
Others argued ‘woke’ Twitter programmers, who have been accused of silencing right-wing voices by suspending or banning controversial accounts whose views they disagree with, had adjusted the algorithm to be more balanced in an attempt to cover up their previous biases.
But Twitter blocked its staff from making programming changes to the app to prevent it being sabotaged, suggested that theory was off the mark.
Today, Carrie-Ann Sudlow, a digital marketeer and social media expert, insisted the changes were not the result of ‘an algorithm issue or a conspiracy’.
“When something like this happens in the world, the influencers like Nigel Farage have an opinion on it, and it’s either popular or not popular and that leads to them gaining or losing followers,” she told MailOnline.
“This is a big takeover from a very influential man. With influence comes strong opinions. Elon fans seem to be for or against with few sitting on the fence.
“He’s making a big impact on all areas of the world, his sceptics will not want to fund him so leave Twitter. His supporters will rejoice and jump on the back of the news hence gaining followers.”
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: @LD_Sceptics, the Twitter account of the Daily Sceptic, has jumped in popularity since Elon’s takeover and now boasts 20,300 followers. The Free Speech Union’s Twitter account has also exploded (~70,000). If you’re on Twitter, please give them both a follow.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
You loved me when the world was at my feet
That’s all over with a TikTok and a Tweet …
Come on everybody, sing along 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqAKwkgC7Oo
Lyrics are in description under video.
Don’t know why you were downticked. I think it’s someone who didn’t like the extra D#7. Philistine.
Thanks. This is funny:
Excellent 🤣🤣
Not sure I’d call Fraser Nelson “right wing,” as illustrated by his meagre increase in followers.
It’s been suggested that the change in subscribers and accounts is Twitter covering its tracks and blatant censorship.
As an example, the censorship of Republicans vs Democrats is 54 : 1.
Anyone who pays the slightest attention to Twitter is a tw*t.
Not sure why I ever joined Twitter but I ain’t ever going back since they blocked me for quoting the UK and US governments and asking a simple question. And Elon Reeve Musk is NOT going to make it a better place.
I think the ‘better place’ bit is a perception rather than reality.
A different place is probably more appropriate.
I was kicked off, but going back in just to wind up the left.
Revenge is a dish best served cold.
James O’Brien and James Whale should team up and have their own radio show together.
A “vaccine entente” of two of the rudest, plug-ugliest blots on the media landscape. Stir in a dash of Toxic Morgan, and voila! Three Witches and a cauldron of pure poisonous BS.
They would cancel each other out in the way inward facing speakers do when you reverse the polarity of one of them. The result would be silence, which would be one problem solved. The remaining aesthetic issue could be rectified using an opaque hermitically sealed booth. Air would be optional, depending on how charitable we felt.
And they could sit injecting each other with fresh boosters all day until the Guillain-Barré rendered them aphasic.
You have obviously given this a LOT of thought CG.
I’m just doing the contracts now.
The show will feature a daily segment called Derek Draper’s Road to Recovery, in which Kate Garraway will provide an update on her husband’s health and travel news.
How wonderful that would be. BTW who are Draper & Garraway?
I’m very jealous that you don’t know who they are.
All you need to know about Twitter is that a democratically elected PoTUS was banned from from the platform but terrorist organisations like the Taliban weren’t.
Surely if you’re right wing you’d defend the right of property owners to ban whoever they like from using their property, so long as they don’t breach a contract?
You mean hypocrisy?
Why would that be hypocrisy?
I am leftwing, and my attitude is that the leftwing notion of the capitalist state ought to be revised so as to include entities such as Twitter and Google as part of that state, but I was asking about your attitude (and politely 🙂 ). Perhaps you aren’t right wing? I was only asking. Why isn’t the rightwing view that the company Twitter banning Trump is akin to the owner of a private garden banning somebody he doesn’t like from coming into it to sunbathe, or a pub landlord chucking someone out?
We can judge the level of critical inquiry of the left when they don’t understand the difference between Twitter banning the man who negotiated the historic Abrahams deal which offers the world lasting peace in the Middle East; and allowing the Taliban, which forces women into servitude, allows old men to take child brides, and beheads anyone they don’t like. On the other hand, Orange man bad, of course. Laughably, the left are childishly ideological. You wan’t the world to conform to your idea of perfect, yet every one of you have a different idea of ‘perfect’. You squabble amongst yourselves like children in a playground desperate to impose your perfect opinions over others and refuse to accept you can be wrong. Many of a conservative inclination were ‘left’ thinking when we were young but soon realised that the world isn’t, and can never be perfect, so we make allowances for others and welcome differences of opinion. Summed up by: “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.” (Corinthians) Followed closely by: “Anyone who is not a republican… Read more »
Agree, Star. Twitter is not a public space.
The Taliban have a Twitter account?! Do they use emojis a lot?
🏳️🌈😤🗡✅
“while left-wing talking heads James O’Brien and Owen Jones lost 241 and 546 each.” – definitely not talking heads, talking arseholes maybe.
maybe talking shit and giving head. To each other
Is that what Dugin calls the fourth position?
Whale and O’Brien’s 69 Drive Time Dog’s Breakfast Show
😀 😀
Once the right is in the ascendancy they must completely and unequivocally stamp all over the left, get rid of all the laws and nonsense that are making us weak and frustrated and learn never to allow scope creep again.
This has been happening since the early 80s. Feminism, homosexuality and then later “equal opportunity” and polytechnics becoming universities right up to the modern day toxic scenario where all straight white men are evil, all jobs must go to blacks, all TV ads must feature mostly blacks, sexes share toilets and young people can decided if they’re male, female or a fucking toaster.
Maybe the war in Ukraine has shaken a few heads, at long last. Bring back the days when you could call a spade a spade and goosing a woman was a compliment not sexual harassment.
Basically you feel that you must secure the existence of your people and a future for white children – would that be a fair summary of your viewpoint?
I would endorse that.
Retrieving or salvaging some kind of cultural identity instead of being the only nation on Earth that has to deride itself would be a great start. Giving white children some sort of hope in this era of positive discrimination is imperative
Turning off the taps on the immigration of unskilled dross is perhaps the starting point. We are stretched to the limit and our lifestyles are being diluted fast for absolutely no benefit to us.
Retrieving or salvaging some kind of cultural identity instead of being the only nation on Earth that has to deride itself would be a great start.
Did you ever hear of a country called Germany, where this has been exactly the same and going on for longer? The wokesters aren’t particularly original: They’ve copied the original sin from the catholic church, realigned it to being the result of seriouly unwoke stuff which happened in the past and use the concept uniformly against anyone they want to subdue: You must atone for the sins of your forefathers! Without any hope of redemption, because while God may have mercy, we most certainly don’t!
[As evidenced by two years of Corona.]
And we’re unvaccinated heterosexual white men! Could anything be eviler?
Come, come CG – “more evil.”
Kinda like eviler !
You need to distinguish between legal & illegal immigrants, and genuine refugees.
That’s an overly simplistic and selective interpretation of Backlash’s comment, but since you ask the question, What’s wrong with wanting to secure the existence of one’s people? You may endorse The new Colonialism which has taken hold of our land, with many areas utterly unrecognisable, but the people were never asked if they wanted this type of neo-colonialism, and if they were to be asked, I’d bet good money that the majority would vote for the repatriation of the vast majority of non-indigenous residents to their country of origin/their ancestors’ country of origin.
Only in a Western society, with its guilt-ridden liberals/leftists, could such a state of affairs take place/be deemed acceptable by the chattering classes. In any non-Western society this would be deemed colonialism or something akin to it, and there would be outrage. Indeed, it would be these same chattering classes leading the outrage against such a state of affairs.
You didn’t get the backhanded allusion: These are the so-called 14 words[*], reportedly a code phrase of the US far right, neonazis, whomever the wokesters hate today. Hence, that’s (most likely) a rethorical trap people are supposed to fall into.
https://www.adl.org/education/references/hate-symbols/14-words
Ah, I see. Thank you.
Of course, one can hold to and utter the sentiment expressed in those ’14 words’ without being a white supremacist. Not that subversive organisations such as the ADL would recognise/acknowledge such an intricate subtlety!
White supremacist is an ill-defined term outside of the so-called melting pot of European peoples, ie, the USA. Actually, it’s even an ill-defined term there as the descendants of the most successful (in terms of longevity) European colonial power in the Americas, the Spaniards, are counted among the non-whites for some mystery reason. IMHO, it’s best to reject the concept altogether. As I already wrote in the past, I’m not white, I’m German. That’s something different from being English, French, Polish or Italian, despite people of all of these different origins would be referred to as (evil) whites by the Americans who invented this term.
I largely agree.
You get an uptick, just not for the reason you’d like.
And yours would be for everyone to conform to sharia law – would that be a fair summary of your viewpoint?
I’m in two minds whether a backlash is coming, or we are at the beginnings of a cultural revolution that will destroy our entire country.
I hope it is a backlash and I endorse your list of things to welcome back. I’d add a fundamental shakeup of immigration, mass deportations of people we know will never assimilate. And a general toughening up of people. Life isn’t easy after all. I’d eradicate the WEF while I was at it.
Get rid of WEF and WHO – Great start.
This politically correct nonsense is a poison running through society. I wouldn’t mind being goosed, or wolf whistled at.
Me neither.
This post is so embarrassing – or it should be.
No sensible person uses Sh*tter.
Tesla shares have plummeted since the announcement of the possible takeover, and they’re continuing to fall even today as the Dow soars. Musk’s loan is secured against Tesla shares. Oh dear… It’ll be funny when he gets his a*se kicked out of the deal, because going by form he’s bound to blame somebody else.
The media loves itself. The media, in all it’s forms, is arguably our biggest problem.
Usual miserable countenance from the left. Without even understanding Musk’s intentions for Twitter, you condemn him.
You did the same with Trump, and because of morons like you the leader of the free world is now a confused geriatric who takes direction from the Easter Bunny.
“But Twitter blocked its staff from making programming changes to the app” They dont have to make changes to the app – simply adjust the parameters by which it identifies accounts or posts that it wants to hide/shadow ban/ban outright. For example if before the app had 300 key words that it was looking for and then flagged those accounts for shadow banning on one day, and then on the next those words were reduced to 100, a lot more posts would ‘slip through the net’. Twitter could then claim there has been no material change to app (as instructed) but mysteriously they could now claim that Twitter was a lot more neutral than people assumed and claim innocence. Obvious and a simple check of the parameters before and after would highlight that. I hope when/if Musk takes over such shenanigans are looked at and made public. Also I love the idea that those in the top half of the diagram are ‘right wing’. Undoubtedly the ones below are Left Wing (it would be very difficult to argue that the likes of Owen Jones and Jeremy Corbyn are anything other – both of those are so left on the political… Read more »
And yet, the left condemn her. Which demonstrates an awful lot more about the left than it does about Rowling, who can’t be left anyway as she’s not given away her vast fortune to those most needy.
Champagne socialist perhaps, but she’s certainly not ‘left’.
This is quite funny:
Timothy Garton Ash has promulgated new teaching on the matter.
https://twitter.com/fromTGA/status/1518878717182894083
“3. The free speech we need for democracy requires certain minimum levels of civility – & some procedures for checking basic factual veracity. You can’t simply rely on unfettered ‘counter-speech’ to do all the work. Not clear ‘free speech absolutist’ @elonmusk gets this.”
Don’t you love the We of Majesty (or should it be the We of Ashesty)? Don’t you love liberalism granting us all the freedom we need to be given?
I’m twice as likely to join Twitter now Musk is at the helm. However 2×0 is still 0 so…
You had me worried there CG.
I’ll be going back in just to piss off the woke. And boy, will I be obnoxious.
I wish I could disable ability to see and write comments on social media and that youtube only had DIY and cooking videos. I won’t be joining twatter.
Fight your corner. I left Facebook but regretted it when a clever man pointed out that all I had done was left more space for the left.
Almost certainly this is not real … instead they starting to show the real level of following which the evil people at twitter were hiding/making up.
Am I bovvered?
Smart move by Musk.
Anyone with any business acumen will tell you, that alienating potential customers is not a good idea.
Let’s say the population was evenly split 50/50, Left wing/Right wing, if you push a product which is promoted for one side over the other, you will automatically lose sales in that demographic. Ergo a potential earnings loss of 50%.
The clown world, which we find ourselves in presently, is filled with uncharted new business opportunities, just imagine, Tampax for men, aftershave for women, bicycles for fish or even jabs for children!
So the real winner here is Musk, fair play.
Twitter is not the real world. That’s why we are in the mess we are in. People in media and government truly think they can shift mountains with followers. There are 70+ million people in this country and a few million are on twitter. What do the 60 -65million people think?
Elon Musk may have shaken a few feathers and I believe twitter is covering up some nasty decisions by changing its algorithms. However, the majority of people are very angry with the vacuous chatterat.
Well said.
Winners and losers on Twitter, who gives a toss?
Twittersphere or Clown World. You choose.
I am neither a winner or a loser, so who cares?
‘Left’ and ‘right’ wing are increasingly meaningless and have been used very effectively as a divide & rule tactic.
We live in in a world in which Jeremy Corbyn’s brother was banned from Twitter and wrote an article on COVID which appeared in The Conservative Woman. None of the MSM would publish it.
The authoritarian/libertarian spectrum is different from wanting lots of billionaires or not wanting people to be hugely unequal. There used to be more ‘libertarians’ on the ‘L’ than ‘R’.
It suits TPTB to divide and rule, as I said. People wanting an effective political discussion would do well to understand this point better than they clearly do.
“Carrie-Ann Sudlow, a digital marketeer and social media expert, insisted the changes were not the result of ‘an algorithm issue or a conspiracy’.”…
You can be sure that those responsible for past censorship algorithms are hastily trying to hide their footprint. Simple human nature.
And the biggest loser is… Emma Watson?
Is she uber-LBLMGTHBOLSD or something?