One of the ripple effects of Elon Musk’s (possible) acquisition of Twitter for $44 billion is the word “shadow ban” being thrown around.
“It’s almost as if Twitter employees lifted a broad anti-conservative, anti-Trump shadow ban, which we all knew was taking place anyway, in an effort to cover their tracks before the new boss takes over,” Fox News “talk show host” Sean Hannity theorized. “Now, Twitter claims that there’s nothing nefarious at play here, but they’ve said that all before.”
Hannity, of course, provided no tangible evidence, unlike Caroline Orr Bueno, a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Maryland, who found that “conservatives added followers because people responded to the Musk news by joining Twitter, creating new accounts, or logging into old accounts that were long dormant.” There’s “no evidence of shadow ban” at play here, according to PolitiFact.
That didn’t stop Joe Rogan from theorizing on his podcast, however.
The Joe Rogan Experience host claims he’s gained 900,000 followers since the Musk news (there’s a 78 percent chance that Musk News will compete with CNN in five years) broke. He credits the increase to Twitter doing “something different.” Rogan’s guest, Feminist Current founder Meghan Murphy, agreed that he had been placed in a “box.”
“Well, Megyn Kelly said the same thing. Did you hear her say that?” Murphy said. “She gained a ton, like a hundred thousand or I don’t remember the number, but something’s going on, a lot. Like, it was really noticeable. And so she was like, I’m pretty sure Twitter was… messing around with my account.”
Rogan added, “I think there’s something — something was going on. I mean, I’m just guessing the other option could be the bots that I’ve gained 900,000 bots, but it’s like every time I look, it’s like another a hundred thousand, it’s crazy!”
Who could risk missing tweets like this?
I’m pregnant. https://t.co/nopJOPEXg9
— Joe Rogan (@joerogan) April 6, 2022
You can watch Rogan discussing shadow-ban theory here.
(Via Mediaite)