Talk of former President Donald Trump has declined drastically on Facebook and Twitter, according to recent data. Conversations about Trump on Facebook and Twitter have declined by about 90 percent on both platforms since the former president was blacklisted by the Masters of the Universe. The data for Twitter does not include tweets and retweets from accounts that have been banned or deactivated.
Data from social media measurement firms Zignal Labs and Facebook-owned CrowdTangle shows a drastic the drop in conversation about President Trump on the internet, according to a report by Recode.
Mentions of Trump have dropped by 34 percent on Twitter, and 23 percent on Facebook the week after he was banned from both platform earlier this year. From there, mentions of the former president have continued to drop — about 90 percent — on both platforms.
The report added that the data for Twitter does not include tweets and retweets from accounts that have been banned or deactivated.
Data from Zignal Labs shows that Trump garnered nearly 50 million mentions in the week beginning January 3 on Twitter. The following week — after Twitter banned Trump from the platform — mentions declined to around 30 million, and have continued to drop.
In the last month, that number plunged to around 3 million mentions per week — which is reportedly around the same level it was before Trump ran for president.
Data from CrowdTangle shows that the week of the 2020 presidential election, Trump’s posts — or posts that included the word “Trump” — on Facebook had the highest number of interactions, with 427 million “likes,” reactions, comments, and shares.
That number spikes to around 300 million the week of January 6, but after Facebook banned the former president from posting to his account, interactions have dropped to levels lower than any seen in the past year — roughly 30 million per week.
The report added that while one might expect a president’s social media engagement to drop after leaving office, “Trump was an exception,” suggesting that his ban from social media likely plays a part in the steep drop in interactions and mentions.
On Wednesday, Facebook’s newly created oversight board ruled that the company was right to blacklist the former president’s account.
The world of Big Tech may have found blacklisting its political adversaries helpful in spreading its own agenda. Similarly, Google has tried to silence Breitbart News.
Ahead of the 2020 November election, Google was found to be engaging in election interference by burying links to Breitbart News in its search results. The tech giant has also suppressed Breitbart stories about Joe Biden all the way through to election day, despite report being published on or over five months ahead of the 2020 presidential election.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, on Parler @alana, and on Instagram.
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