Kanye West's Twitter followers have not dropped after tweets praising Donald Trump

Millions of people are still reading the controversial posts

Andrew Griffin
Thursday 26 April 2018 13:56 BST
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President-elect Donald Trump and Kanye West stand together in the lobby at Trump Tower, December 13, 2016 in New York City
President-elect Donald Trump and Kanye West stand together in the lobby at Trump Tower, December 13, 2016 in New York City (Getty)

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Kanye West isn't actually losing followers on Twitter despite his use of it to support Donald Trump.

In the wake of West's string of posts, a number of websites claimed that his follower count had dropped by millions in just a few minutes. A number of viral tweets suggested that his follower count had dropped by nine million users in just a few minutes, after he posted tweets including a picture of a signed Make America Great Again hat.

But despite the controversy around the posts, West's followers do seem to be staying the same, at around 27 million. The number might be changing on some people's screens, but that appears to be a problem with Twitter rather than people taking issue with his posts.

A Twitter spokesperson that the fluctuations were a mistake.

"We can confirm that Kanye's follower count is currently at approximately 27M followers," the company said. "Any fluctuation that people might be seeing is an inconsistency and should be resolved soon."

The issue appears to be a result of the fact that West deleted his Twitter and then re-activated it earlier this month.

The changes in his follower count first seem to have been noticed on Twitter. They quickly spread across the rest of the internet, with a range of different sites reporting that it had dropped by millions.

West, who has deleted his Twitter in the past, has been using the site heavily in the last few days. While his statements about the president have received the most attention, he has also promised to release two new albums in the coming months and has discussed pulling himself out of the traditional record industry.

But by far the most controversial have been the posts about Mr Trump, who he repeatedly praised in a variety of different ways.

"You don't have to agree with trump but the mob can't make me not love him," one representative tweet read. "We are both dragon energy. He is my brother. I love everyone. I don't agree with everything anyone does. That's what makes us individuals. And we have the right to independent thought.

His posts have drawn support from Donald Trump, as well as many of his supporters and family.

At the time of publication, West hasn't tweeted for a full 14 hours.

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