X Suspends Fake Expert Jon Uhler For Inauthentic Activity

Subject of our reporting buys engagement, loses his account

Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey hey, goodbye

Jon Uhler, a subject of our reporting here at The Distance in 2024, has been suspended from the X app for inauthentic activity after apparently purchasing thousands of follows from suspicious accounts that liked and retweeted him (‘bots’).

As a result of our investigation, his follower count on X had dwindled by several hundred active users. Mr. Uhler’s tweets were getting less engagement as they became more deranged and former allies distanced themselves.

When the loneliness got to be too much for him, he once again decided to buy some companionship. We consider this development a validation of our work exposing the pathetic frauds and manifold abuses of Mr. Uhler.

Last Wednesday, Uhler-watchers noted something odd was happening to his follower count. This screenshot was taken right away. After a year of losing ground, he had suddenly gained hundreds of new social media acolytes. His tweets, which had languished in the algorithmic swamps of X, suddenly had hundreds of retweets and many hundreds of likes.

Upon closer inspection, however, the engagement turned out to be entirely Chinese-language accounts, some of which referenced CCP organizations (“All-China Students Federation”) in their bios. Not that we are experts on X bots, but this does seem a little bit sketchy, no?

We noted a churn over Thursday and Friday. Hundreds of bots would follow Mr. Uhler’s account, then scores of them would disappear, then hundreds more would appear. To us, this was an indication that X was catching on to what he was doing, so we made popcorn and prepared for them to act.

Mr. Uhler’s follower count peaked at over 21,200 in the hours before his account was suspended. Based on our research, we estimate that he likely spent around $300 for about 72 hours of social media endorphins.

No tweet from an account that size can organically get this much engagement in so little time on the X app. Mr. Uhler committed the sin of gluttony and made his rule-breaking impossible to miss, or to misconstrue. Put another way, he was asking for a ban. He had to know better, or should have. If someone suggested this to him, they were not advising in his best interests.

Jon Uhler still has another, older X account that he may reactivate. He might also create a new account. Perhaps he will even con Elon Musk into giving him the account back. Or he may decide to try a new platform of some kind, escaping the ignominy and embarrassment of going out like this.

In the meantime, here is a 50 percent flash sale discount on annual premium subscriptions. We appreciate our paying subscribers for making it possible to do this public service.