Twitter Allegedly Locked Right-Wing Users' Accounts, Thinking They Are Bots

Twitter allegedly locked several accounts on their platform, Wednesday, thinking them to be bots which led to outrage on social media.

Most of the accounts that claim to be locked seem to be right wing conservative Trump supporters, who claim they are being targeted for their political beliefs. Here are some instances.

The Columbia Bugle, a conservative blog site posted on their Twitter account claiming that the social media company locked its account and that it also lost 800 followers.

The blog site also posted on its Twitter account taking aim at Liberals saying: “Unfortunately for the Left I am not a bot. I am a real American who happily voted for President Trump in 2016.”

Another Twitter user, who goes by the name of Chiz, and described himself as a “Proud Supporter of President Trump” on his profile bio, posted a tweet claiming he lost 2600 followers.

In another tweet he also claimed his account was locked and he lost followers because he is a “conservative voice” who exposed “Liberal Hypocrisy.”

Another Twitter user named Mike, who wrote on his bio “I destroy liberals,” claimed he lost 100 followers and described the issue as “a damn joke.”

Mike also stated: “Twitter is absolutely censoring conservative and right wing speech for no damn reason other than their disagreement with it. But, liberals can write vile comments and threaten us with no punishment.”

Some of his earlier tweets included a video where he stated he was “sick of the left blaming the NRA” and Trump for the mass shooting incident in Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida.

Another Twitter user named Kathie, who describes herself as a Trump supporter in her bio, posted a picture on Twitter which purportedly showed a message she received from Twitter when her account got locked.

There has been no official word from Twitter about this incident, neither on their official Twitter account nor on their official site.

A video posted on Twitter by GAB, a Texas-based social-networking site explained a similar trend as above.

In the video, the narrator can be heard saying while referring to the accounts being locked: "This really worries me on the fact that this has a trend of targeting of what appears to be thousands of conservative or right wing accounts.”

The narrator also stated that users whose claim their accounts were locked, were asked for their phone numbers to be verified in order for their accounts to be unlocked again. With regards to this, the narrator of the video said: “This could be an effort for Twitter to collect phone numbers.”

According to a report by Washington Post in 2016, GAB is a social network site by conservative Christian Republican Andrew Torba and rose to prominence after Twitter users started using the platform after they were suspended from Twitter for "hateful conduct."

The issue was trending on Twitter with many users either giving their opinion on the matter or claiming their accounts were locked using the hashtag #TwitterLockOut.

One Twitter user named StopCensorship said in a tweet: “This is the left preventing the right from organizing online. They are coordinating this with their push for gun control to control the narrative on this issue. They're cracking down on Youtube and Twitter, removing right wing content, and calling us bots #TwitterLockOut”