Tag Archives: Jack Dorsey

Why I Returned to Twitter

By J Robert Smith

  • Dec. 14, 2022
  • 3 min read

In January of 2021, when Twitter brass suspended Donald Trump’s very popular and powerful account, it was the last straw for me.

I’d been on Twitter since the autumn of 2013, as I recall. By July 2020, with a lot of sweat equity, I’d built my account to nearly 16,000 followers. I was adding an estimated 100-200 followers daily during that tumultuous summer. The riots and general lawlessness that Democrats were permitting in the cities they ran were fueling my following. Then there was the contentious presidential race. With frequent posts about the Trump-Biden dustup, my profile was rising and reach spreading. A conservative surging in popularity was always a red flag among Twitter’s woke monitors.

Then, suddenly, my new followers slowed to a trickle. Some days, nothing. Then over the course of the next few weeks, my existing following started to dwindle. I went to a Germany-based platform that determines if your Twitter account is being “shadow-banned,” among other surreptitious means of muzzling members conservatives. My account was being shadow-banned.

Went the reports, Twitter was allegedly purging “bots,” phony accounts. By November 2020, as I recollect, I’d lost about 4,000 followers. Sure, bots have been and are a problem at Twitter. They inflate Twitter’s aggregate count. Twitter’s member volume helps sell advertising and ups pricing.

But purging bots in the middle of a hotly contested election season? Elon Musk questioned Twitter’s price tag in negotiations because, he contended, the platform’s value was inflated by Twitter execs allowing bots to increase its value. Seems a little too coincidently, doesn’t it?

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We’ve Ditched Twitter – and Glad to have Done It

By J Robert Smith

  • Jun 13
  • 2 min read

Looking at the Flyover page, you may have noticed that there are headers for Twitter threads for Rob and myself. The feeds are gone. We both quit Twitter. Good riddance.

In my case, I ended my account when oddball Jack Dorsey cancelled President Trump’s account. That was the last straw. Prior to that, beginning in July 2020, my 15,500 thousand-strong account was deboosted by Twitter. I wasn’t being singled out, though.

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Trump’s Out at Facebook. Let’s Stop Chasing Big Tech Platforms


By J Robert Smith

  • May 5, 2021
  • 3 min read

The Facebook Oversight Board ruled earlier today that former president Donald Trump is gone from its platform – for good, it appears. Throw in Instagram.

The statement released by the Board is a bunch high-minded sounding goop. Read the decision here. Bottom-line: Banishing Trump when he was president was a powerplay. Keeping Trump off Zuckerberg’s platforms is – yes, you guessed it – a powerplay. It’s a powerplay premised on a Big Lie.

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The Trials Ahead

J Robert Smith

  • Jan. 13, 2021
  • 5 min read

During last Friday night’s Twitter purge, if I read it once, I read it dozens of times: posters sense of shock that a mass expulsion was underway. Two of the more common exclamations were: “This is unreal!” and “Unbelievable!” These lamentations came from some notable names, too. I was astonished that people – particularly those who should know better – were astonished. Then in the wee hours of Saturday morning, having witnessed enough virtual carnage, I deactivated my Twitter account, never to resurrect it – short of the miraculous: Jack Dorsey selling his misbegotten enterprise to Donald J. Trump.

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