‘J*ck’ trending on Twitter as celebrity stan accounts get “purged” from platform
Wikimedia Commons: Mark Warner/TwitterTwitter CEO Jack Dorsey has found himself at the center of a storm on his own platform, after multiple stan accounts for celebrities were apparently banned, and ‘J*ck’ is trending as a result.
While you might have seen the trending topic and assumed it’s censoring a profanity you’re not aware of, it’s simply fan accounts hitting out at the Twitter CEO – while trying to avoid his ban hammer.
Jack is no stranger to controversy — he’s had his accounts hacked and had to make the bold decision to ban the departing US President’s account at the back end of 2020.
Now, though, he’s dealing with something far scarier: the stans. ‘Stans’, or the most committed of fans, have unprecedented power on Twitter, with the ability to infiltrate any community and get anything trending as they wish.
YouTube: Bangtan TVSo, when a number of stan accounts started getting banned, apparently because they were ‘impersonating’ celebrities by using their images, they rallied together to go straight to the top, and they want answers from Jack himself.
You can flick through the J*ck Twitter trend yourself to see what people are saying, but the crux of it is explained well by user Zettabyte.
“Who is j*ck?” they tweeted. “Apparently some guy at Twitter headquarters, mass banning Twitter accounts that have a celeb [profile pictures] or name because it’s impersonation.”
Who is j*ck: Apparently some guy at twitter headquarters mass banning twitter accounts that have a celeb pfp or name because it's impersonation. Retweet or like so people can stop asking ffs.
— Zettabyte v1.0 (@not_zettabyte) April 27, 2021
This makes sense, too — as celebrities and verified users will often have people impersonate them online, Twitter and other social media platforms usually attempt to prevent this from happening as much as possible.
Some people believe this may be a step too far, but others are finding the humor in it. For example, MaxKriegerVG says the fact that j*ck is trending is proof that they “do not in fact live on this planet.”
watching the kpop stans all go "so this j*ck asshole who's banning everyone is some jerk that works at twitter??? let's dox him" confirms that they do not in fact live on this planet
— 〽️ax krieger is building meter (@MaxKriegerVG) April 28, 2021
Of course, the memes are being created and shared in their thousands too.
https://twitter.com/likeCreflo/status/1387192052857856002?s=20
It’s unclear how many accounts have been banned or suspended, or exactly what the criteria was, but the stan accounts fear they might be in danger as a result and taken the issue straight to the top.
If you have a celebrity as your profile image on Twitter, you might want to consider swapping it out, just in case.