Ted Cruz inadvertently helps Twitter porn account to 19000 more followers

Texas Senator Ted Cruz might’ve been the joke of Twitter yesterday when his account liked a pornographic video, but he has been a boon for business for one particular Twitter account.

Call it the Barbra Streisand effect, or call it inadvertent social marketing, but after Cruz’s account slapped @SexuallPosts’ like button, an influx of followers followed.

Analytics firm SocialBlade noted this rise on the 12 September as 11 770 users. That’s around 9000 more followers per day than the porn account’s general daily follow count.

This wasn’t a once off either. Today (13 September), SocialBlade saw an additional boom of 7400 users at the time of writing. This number is also set to rise throughout the day.

Before the Ted Cruz drama, @SexuallPosts had 597 000 users. As of 13 September, it now has over 616 000.

Graph: all data courtesy of SocialBlade

As noted yesterday, Cruz’s senior communications officer Catherine Frazier denied that he had liked the post.

“The offensive tweet posted on @tedcruz account earlier has been removed by staff and reported to Twitter,” she tweeted.

The offensive tweet posted on @tedcruz account earlier has been removed by staff and reported to Twitter

— Catherine Frazier (@catblackfrazier) September 12, 2017

The blame has since been pinned on a staffer manning the Cruz account at the time of the illicit like.

“It was a staffing issue and it was inadvertent,” Cruz confirmed when questioned by reporters.

“It was a mistake.”

Mistake or not, it’s clear that some people’s misfortune can be a boon for others, even in the dire world of Twitter.