© Kelly Caminero/The Daily Beast/Getty
Nearly 10 percent of the unverified accounts retweeted by President Trump since his inauguration are currently suspended from Twitter for various violations of the platform's policies, ranging from hate speech to running fake sockpuppet accounts, a Daily Beast analysis has found.
The most recent occurrence was last week, when Twitter tapped the brakes on "LYNNTHO06607841" just hours after Trump retweeted the account's proclamation that "DEMOCRATS ARE THE TRUE ENEMIES OF AMERICA!" Before it was boarded up, the account's timeline was thick with all-caps
conspiracy theories targeting prominent Democrats, including a recent tweet claiming Bill and Hillary Clinton "torture and sacrifice children" to get at "a drug that can only be found inside the human skull."
The suspension set The Daily Beast wondering about the ultimate fate of other Twitter users plucked from relative obscurity by a presidential retweet. Do they thrive and flourish in the limelight, or are they like child stars who often lose their way later in life?
By our count,
Trump has picked his retweets from 488 accounts since his swearing-in. Most are public figures, media outlets, and government agencies sporting the familiar blue "verified" check mark attesting to the account-holder's identity.
Of the 178 unverified users, Twitter had 16 on suspended status as of Thursday, when we made the count, with their tweets silenced and their timelines blocked from public view. The number dropped to 15 on Friday when one account returned from a 60-day ban. A single verified account, operated by the far-right group British First,
was suspended after Trump retweeted three violent anti-Muslim smears.
Comment: The sickest part of it is that 'hunts of deplorables' is what they already do, and have been doing for decades.
Sure, sometimes they hit blue zones more in line with 'their own' (Orlando nightclub massacre, Parkland school massacre), but for the most part they're targeting what we know today as 'the Trump base' - the great majority of ordinary Americans they detest and abuse.
So this movie is just them gloating about it (over and above the mediatized psy-operas that accompany each massacre).
That's how far gone things are. They can do this and get away with it. But you, if you dare to call them out, or mention them by name, you're done for.