Here ya go @inertia . Is it still fake news? I don't know. You guys are both smarter than me. I find that @socky is pretty spot on with stuff so I will trust he has done his research. If it is fake news then I am sure steemitblog will be able to address it quickly and thoroughly.
We have no information about the previous spikes. For all we know, those spikes were from a backlog that is now empty.
I didn't mean to start a disagreement. I'm just pointing out something that should be addressed. I believe Steemit Inc provides notifications that accounts have been approved/verified by email or text. It seems like they should send out a message to those in the queue that they have stopped creating accounts and provide a list of other account creation options. The free account option on the website should be taken down.