‘J*ck’ trending on Twitter as celebrity stan accounts get “purged” from platform

Twitter 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.

So, 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.

• Read More: PewDiePie starts trending on Twitter for most wholesome reason

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.”

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.”

Of course, the memes are being created and shared in their thousands too.

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.