Former White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders drew criticism on Twitter after she complained about losing 50,000 followers in a purge that rid the micro-blogging platform of Trump supporters and QAnon conspiracy theorists in the wake of the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.
"I've lost 50k+ followers this week. The radical left and their big tech allies cannot marginalize, censor, or silence the American people. This is not China, this is United States of America, and we are a free country," Sanders wrote on Sunday.
She included a screenshot of the Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo's tweet, which showed how many followers political figures gained or lost on the platform.
QAnon, Pro-Trump Accounts Purged
On Friday, after permanently banning Trump from Twitter, the platform removed the accounts of Michael Flynn, Sidney Powell and several other supporters of the president who promoted the QAnon conspiracy theory.
"We've been clear that we will take strong enforcement action on behavior that has the potential to lead to offline harm, and given the renewed potential for violence surrounding this type of behavior in the coming days, we will permanently suspend accounts that are solely dedicated to sharing QAnon content," a Twitter spokesperson said in a statement.
Outrage on Twitter
Sanders' tweet has now sparked outrage on Twitter, led by a teacher who taught at Sanders' high school. "You were a student at Little Rock Central High when I taught AP Government there, but you didn't take the advanced class. If you had, maybe you would better understand the First Amendment and the difference between limits on government and freedoms for private individuals," the teacher wrote.
Meanwhile, another user called her out for being more concerned about losing followers than about the people who died in the Capitol building attack or due to the coronavirus pandemic.
"Sarah's more outraged about losing 50K followers on Twitter than she is about 5 people dying in the Capitol Building this week or 380,000 dying from a preventable disease in 10 months. But no doubt she thinks she is a "patriot" and a "Christian!" the user commented.
Not long after, a number of popular personalities, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Stephen King and CNN's Jake Tapper, also expressed their anger at Sanders' rhetoric. Here are some of the tweets:
