The so-called #Resistance, the online opposition to Donald Trump, lost two of its most prominent tweeters on Thursday night.
Brian and Ed Krassenstein, prominent Trump critics since his election in 2016, had more than 1 million combined followers on Twitter. The duo worked hard to cultivate a following built almost entirely around opposition to the President of the United States. They blamed Russia for just about everything and called for Trump’s impeachment, sometimes multiple times a day.
Their opposition to Trump essentially made them Trump reply guys, constantly debating him (with no Trump responses, mind you) in the replies to his tweets and writing updates about Trump-related stories at every turn. If by now you still have no idea who the Krassensteins are, here is a good primer.
But on Thursday, they disappeared from Twitter, and apparently it wasn’t by their own volition.
According to The Daily Beast’s Will Sommer, the brothers were banned from Twitter for violating the social media site’s user conditions, in part because they operated fake accounts on the social media platform that made them Internet famous.
“The Twitter Rules apply to everyone,” a Twitter spokesperson said in a statement. “Operating multiple fake accounts and purchasing account interactions are strictly prohibited. Engaging in these behaviors will result in permanent suspension from the service.”
According to Twitter, the brothers are permanently banned for having the fake accounts, a huge blow to the duo that also write about Trump on an ad-driven website. The brothers also gave a statement to The Daily Beast, noting that the only used those fake accounts to monitor what they deemed as death threats.
“Twitter claims that we manipulated our interactions through the purchase of fake accounts and fake interactions,” the Krassenstein brothers said. “We have never once acquired anything for the purpose of increasing our Twitter presence.”
The Krassensteins say they only operated secondary accounts on Twitter to monitor death threats, as well as accounts for their businesses.
“None of those accounts were ever used for manipulative purposes as Twitter claims,” the Krassensteins said in the statement.
[via The Daily Beast]