Twitter lost two million members this quarter, marking an end to the “Trump Bump,” a phenomenon analysts credit for boosting the social media platform’s user count over the last year.
The heavy losses were revealed in the company’s second-quarter earnings report, but it’s not all bad for the social media platform. Twitter membership continued to grow outside the United States—up to 260 million users. The company ended with a daily active user increase of 12 percent year-over-year despite its U.S. struggles.
It’s not clear why Twitter users are leaving the site. It could be they are simply getting tired of political drama, or weren’t impressed by the platform after rejoining to follow Trump. It could also be an increase in online abuse stemming from the tense political discourse in the U.S. A recent study found one in seven Americans say online harassment was incited by their political beliefs.
While U.S. membership slows down, Trump continues to regularly tweet crucial policy information. He most recently used a Twitter rant as his vehicle to announce a ban on transgender people in the military. One of the tweets gained 130,000 likes and 45,000 retweets.
The new earnings report proves the Trump effect may not be as permanent as Twitter may have hoped. The social giant will need to think of a new way to gain followers now that it lost momentum from the most famous user of all time.
H/T PopSugar
