Hail (@Hail)

OBSERVATIONS ON THE TWITTER PURGE of Jan. 2021. I've been trying to track the ongoing wave of political bannings on Twitter, or the digital bayonetting of suspected Trump-supporters by "Regime Social Media." Of my existing followers just before the (current and ongoing) Purge began, I've lost nearly **6%** -- as of this writing. Others have lost more; e.g., the big pro-Trump/MAGA account James Woods had already lost nearly 6.5% by by midday EST Jan. 9, almost 72 hours after the Purge order appears to have come. Even some on the Populist-Right in Europe are reporting unusual and sudden losses, but at a lower rate than comparable US figures. This implies to me the bans are specifically targeted at Americans suspected of Trump support, with a small spillover effect onto European accounts. A big right-wing dissident economist in Germany with modest US ties reported a ca. 0.3% loss of followers overnight, at a time when American accounts of similar type were most often in the -3% to -5% range -- some reported higher than that, and many more will be above that range now. The banning seems to be occurring steadily, with more people lost every hour. If you check back several times throughout the day and are at all in the Suspected Trump-Supporter orbit or overlapping with such an orbit, you'll see steady losses of followers. I;ve seen this with small and big accounts, everyone. This implies to me some kind of human-review process of flagged accounts, not a "light-switch" model of simply turning some kind of Master Hit List off all at once. The scale of losses being reported implies hundreds of thousands of bannings of suspected Trump-supporter and allied accounts, and if continuing at this rate it could go into the millions. The wave of bans appears still ongoing by late in day Jan. 9 EST.