By Elizabeth Culliford
(Reuters) – Twitter Inc Chief Executive Jack Dorsey appeared to stop following President Donald Trump on the social media platform this weekend, according to a Twitter account that follows the activity of tech leaders.
Dorsey also unfollowed Democratic President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, said @BigTechAlert, as well as the @realDonaldTrump account and the account of his daughter, Ivanka Trump.
Trump, a prolific user of Twitter, has lost 368,743 followers since Nov. 17, according to Factba.se, a website that tracks Trump’s public statements and tweets.
His follower count still stands at 88.5 million, but the decrease represents a shift for an account that has rapidly grown during his time in office. Biden has gained about 2.5 million followers since Nov. 17, bringing his follower count to 21.6 million.
A Twitter spokesman declined to comment.
Trump’s Twitter account has sometimes fired off more than 100 tweets a day and has been used to communicate with his supporters, insult opponents and fire staff. He also has announced numerous policy decisions on the platform.
Twitter this year started adding warnings and labels to the president’s rule-breaking tweets, including on misinformation tweeted about the Nov. 3 election. Trump and Republican lawmakers have repeatedly accused Twitter and other major social media platforms of anti-conservative bias in their content moderation, which the companies deny.
In recent weeks, Twitter has said that when Biden takes office on Jan. 20, Trump will be subject to the same rules as any other user. He will also begin to be subject to Facebook Inc’s third-party fact-checking program, from which politicians are exempt.
(Reporting by Elizabeth Culliford in New York; Editing by Chris Sanders and Dan Grebler)
