Conservatives on Twitter Freak Out Over Losing Followers to Bot Purge

Wah, wah.

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Image via Getty/ Thomas Trutschel/Photothek
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Conservative Twitter is up in arms over an alleged “lockout” that affected thousands of accounts. While Twitter has yet to release an official statement, it It looks like the company actually suspended a slew of conservative bot accounts causing a noticeable dip in the followers of a number IRL conservative users. To use Twitter speak, #sorrynotsorry.

Naturally, a lot of the right-wing users are claiming that real people have been locked out of their accounts. To be fair, the line between a bot and an uber conservative Twitter user is pretty slim. Gizmodo has been keeping tabs on the matter and says they’ve made contact with two real people who seem to have been affected by the crackdown. One Texas woman (who goes by @ThankUGOD4Trump on Twitter, ugh) said, “They told me that my account ‘exhibited automated behavior’ and that I’d be sent a ‘verification code’ which I’ve never received.” Meanwhile, conservative users who were spared from the purge are using the hashtag #TwitterLockOut to talk about the mass suspension.

Trump supporters are blaming Communists for the purge, which seems a little melodramatic for a crew that accuses liberals of being “snowflakes.” Some notable conservative users who were hardest hit by the cleanup include neo-Nazi Richard Spencer and pro-Trump Bill Mitchell, the latter of whom claims to have lost 4,000 followers overnight. Thoughts and prayers, dude. Thoughts and prayers.

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