Who is the 'CEO of Ratio' Albert? Twitter suspends mysterious troll account @albert12798, here's why
Those who have been "ratioed" by the troll Twitter account @albert12798, including celebs, can now rejoice. The account has been suspended, less than a month after he won Luminosity Gaming's 'Twitter Likes' challenge to win a sponsorship deal from the company.
Unclear about what the account did to get thrown off the social media platform? Here is a low-down on how the troll account became one of the fastest-growing accounts of 2020 since its creation in September last year and why it has now been suspended on January 11.
Who Is behind @Albert12798?
In short, no one knows. From the very start, the individual behind the handle has kept their data under wraps. There is no information regarding their identity on the platform, be it a name (besides the obviously fake 'Albert'), gender, location, bio, profile picture or banner. The account also never relied on self-generated content, besides annoying comments meant to troll. In addition, it also posted a lot of typical meme content or recycled generic content.
The account started gaining popularity after it successfully trolled other Twitter users, including internet celebs like YouTubers Jake Paul, Bryce Hall, and Instagram fitness model Sommer Ray. He has also plagiarized other people's fan art to tweet at celebs like rapper Future and singer The Weeknd and got more retweets than the original artist. He has also shown his 'clout' by getting more replies and retweets with a tweet with nothing more than a simple full stop punctuation. Here are some screenshots of some of his viral tweets.
What is being 'ratioed'? How @Albert12798 became the CEO of Ratio
"Ratio" refers to the volume of replies vs. the volume of likes and retweets. Usually, when a tweet has a lot of replies and fewer likes and retweets, it indicates that it was controversial and a lot of people took the effort to express their disagreement. That tweet is said to be "ratio'd" or "ratioed".
On Twitter though, this word has acquired a new meaning. The word "ratio" is used on Twitter to indicate that a reply to a tweet is getting better engagement than the original tweet -- and this includes all kinds of engagement, from replies, to likes to retweets.
in the beginning, when @Albert12798 handle came into existence, he was 'ratioing' other tweets through trolling and using annoying memes. Later, he got Internet-famous because of his ability to troll so effectively with minimal effort and gained a fan-following on the social media platform. By December 22, 2020, he had over 300,000 followers. His fans would help him 'ratio' other Twitter users by liking, retweeting or replying to his 'reply' tweets rather than the original posts.
When Luminosity Gaming posted its 'Twitter Likes' challenge, it said it would sponsor anyone who could get 100K likes. @Albert12798 replied to the tweet with "that's easy", which quickly surpassed the number of likes needed and the meme account became an official team member of the company. Luminosity Gaming even tweeted out a welcome to the controversial account, calling the individual behind the account, the 'CEO of Ratio'.
Welcome the CEO of Ratio to LG @albert12798 pic.twitter.com/9qD8BpoJU3
— Luminosity Gaming (@Luminosity) December 22, 2020
Why was @Albert12798 account suspended?
There has been some trepidation among social media platforms about how the Biden-Harris administration is expected to showcase stricter social media regulation. The Trump era was a free-for-all that saw Facebook publish political ads with false information and Twitter become an organizing and information hub for right-wing Trump supporters who descended on the Capitol, breaking into the building to protest. Twitter's @realDonaldTrump account followers totaled approximately half of Twitter's entire customer base.
After Twitter permanently suspended @realDonaldTrump account for violating their 'Glorification of Violence' policy, it seems to be combing through its Twitter accounts to suspend any accounts that violate any of its policies in a bid for fairness and also to clean up the platform before it is pulled up by the new administration. @Albert12798 specifically has violated two of its rules in particular.
1) Platform manipulation and spam:
No account can use Twitter’s services in a "manner intended to artificially amplify or suppress information or engage in behavior that manipulates or disrupts people’s experience on Twitter".
2) Copyright and trademark:
No account can "violate others’ intellectual property rights, including copyright and trademark". @Albert12798 has posted original fan art of @Tw1tterPicasso as his own.
The Biden-Harris administration is likely to move towards greater regulation of the technology sector. That includes stronger action on competition policy, antitrust enforcement, privacy policy, cybersecurity, and Section 230 reforms.