Dragons' Den star Steven Bartlett has claimed a teenager turned down a million pounds offer for his Twitter page Politics For All.
The entrepreneur, who fronts The Diary Of A CEO podcast, took to the social media platform earlier this week and shared his disappointment after the politics account was banned - with a spokesperson for Twitter saying it was 'suspended for violating rules on platform manipulation and spam'.
Millionaire Steven told his own followers that he believes Twitter's decision to ban the page is 'shady'.
Student Nick Moar, 19, and a 'group of 10 19-24 year olds that love politics' were responsible for running the Twitter page and aimed to create an 'independent, youth focused media brand,' according to Steven.
However, the page was taken down overnight, and it led to Steven sharing his thoughts on what had happened.
He penned: "I think the banning of politics for all on twitter is one of the shadiest things I’ve ever seen from a social media platform in my entire life. Knowing the backstory and how and “why” it happened has made me deeply question the integrity of the people at Twitter."
Adding 'my thoughts,' he said: "Twitter banned the page with no explanation or email at all. After days of enquiry and media attention, Twitter sent politics for all an email essentially telling them they’ve banned them because they RT’d one account (politics for all) on to their other account (news for all)."
Steven then posted a screenshot from Sky News to prove that other news outlets also retweet content.
The Social Chain founder continued: "Whether you like politics for all or not, they generated over a billion impressions on tweets that were critical of the current government and the recent Christmas party scandal. Every screenshot I got on WhatsApp regarding the Christmas party scandal originated from their page."
He then credited Nick and his team for reaching a 'younger' audience in a 'more social way,' before asking: "So why has it vanished overnight?"
Steven said: "From everything I’ve seen, I believe someone was unhappy with the reach and influence of the channel and had a word with someone at Twitter and asked for it to be removed. They have done nothing that other media companies on twitter don’t do every single day.
"I also believe Twitter saw them as an easier target / an easier voice to silence, because they’re a young group of kids and not a big Murdoch corporation. I’ve been in the social media game some 10 years, I’ve seen many suspensions, this to me made me feel really uncomfortable."
He added: "You don’t have to love the page, agree with their approach or even be political interested to feel uneasy about this. Traditional media (who tried to buy the channel off Nick in the days before the ban) or Government’s, being able to decide who can and can’t speak is worrying."
Steven then alleged that "one of the big media corporations offered Nick a huge 7-figure valuation to buy the page".
"Nick - a broke 19 year student - said no and insisted it was to remain independent," Steven continued. "He woke up a few days later and Twitter had suspended it? I’m not a conspiracy theorist but…
"I see commentary that Nick worked at the Spectator. The facts on that: - He is a full-time 19yo student - He does have a part time job (taking up 1hr a day) scheduling article tweets there. - Politics for all had 1 shareholder. Him. - He was leaving Spectator to focus on PFA."
In the comments section, Steven's fans shared their thoughts, with many people disagreeing with him as they approved Twitter's decision to take the page down.
One person wrote: "They weren't accurate, they tend to skew or put out other media orgs' headlines as their own. That's a big no-no. I pointed it out few times & told them to at least point to the source. When they literally retweet someone's headline- sorry, that's wrong. #PoliticsForAll."
A second penned: "Not sure I 100% buy the innocent victim story. So many bad actors have been untouched by Twitter I suspect there is more to it. In the end the corporation decides what it accepts and we have to live with that if we use the platform."
"All it ever did was tweet other people's stuff. Pointless," a third added.
Meanwhile, others backed Steven's opinion.
"Well said Steve!" another person wrote.
The Mirror has contacted a spokesperson for Twitter for a comment.
