Two Internet-famous anti-Trump brothers were reportedly banned permanently from Twitter on Thursday.
Brian and Ed Krassenstein allegedly operated fake accounts and purchased fake interactions with their accounts, The Daily Beast reported.
“The Twitter Rules apply to everyone,” a Twitter spokesperson said in a statement to The Daily Beast. “Operating multiple fake accounts and purchasing account interactions are strictly prohibited. Engaging in these behaviors will result in permanent suspension from the service.”
Krassenstein’s statement.
h/t @skzdalimit pic.twitter.com/dz2cBlEux9— The????FOO (@PolitiBunny) May 24, 2019
The brothers often critically responded to tweets from the president and accumulated more than 1.5 million combined followers.
Ed Krassenstein responded to the ban in a Facebook post, writing, “Twitter claims that we manipulated our interactions through the purchase of fake accounts and fake interactions. We have never once acquired anything for the purpose of increasing our Twitter presence. In fact, we avoided using any platforms residing outside of Twitter’s own technology to manage our accounts for fear we would be accused of using automated tools, which we have avoided since launching our account.” (RELATED: Twitter Temporarily Suspended Trump’s Favorite Troll After Posting Tweet Mocking CNN’s Jim Acosta)
The Krassenstein brothers co-founded the Hill Reporter with James Kosur. The news publication self-identifies as “a liberal team of writers. The news we choose to cover is decidedly liberal in nature. HillReporter.com was developed to focus on liberal talking points for a liberal audience and we are very open about this fact.”