Tucker Carlson boasts more than 3.7 million followers on Instagram. On another platform, X, his following is nearly 13 million. Given that X is perceived as less restrictive, Carlson regularly posts episodes of his new show there. This disparity in followers might stem from another factor.
A quick search for Carlson didn’t uncover his verified account. Instead, the results were inundated with impersonators and fan pages. It took several attempts to confirm that Carlson’s verified account would only show up when entering his exact handle, @TuckerCarlson, into the search bar.
Upon finding Carlson’s account, Instagram put up one last barrier to engagement, imploring prospective followers to reconsider.
The pop-up reads, “Are you sure you want to follow @tuckercarlson?”
“This account has repeatedly posted false information that was reviewed by independent fact-checkers or it went against our Community Guidelines,” added the pop-up.
No similar warning messages appeared when testing follow requests on accounts of various liberal personalities and publications known for spreading falsehoods and creating misleading narratives.
The question doesn’t arise, for example, for people wanting to follow Newsweek, despite its history of playing loose with the truth. Just last month, Newsweek incorrectly claimed that Tucker Carlson had collaborated with