In an effort to reduce the number of fake accounts on Twitter, the social media giant will be deleting tens of millions of accounts starting this Thursday.
As reported by The New York Times, the reasoning for Twitter deleting the accounts stems from extensive social media fraud, where some users inflate their own follower count by using automated fake accounts in order to bolster their status on the service.
Starting on Thursday, many users will see their follower number fall – even those who haven’t explicitly bought fake followers. No specific number of the accounts expected to be deleted was given, though it did confirm that the number would be in the tens of millions. Twitter anticipates that this will reduce the total combined follower count on the site by roughly six percent
“We don’t want to incentivize the purchase of followers and fake accounts to artificially inflate follower counts, because it’s not an accurate measure of someone’s influence on the platform or influence in the world,” said Twitter’s vice president for trust and safety Del Harvey. “We think it’s a really important and meaningful metric, and we want people to have confidence that these are engaged users that are following other accounts.”
If you’re worried about losing half of your followers come Thursday, don’t sweat it: Twitter estimates the average user will only see their follower number drop by four. Of course, those who have bought fake followers will see a much larger reduction.
Back in May, Twitter warned users that they should change their passwords after an internal glitch caused by the hashtag process jeopardized millions of accounts. And though it might not seem like it, Twitter has changed the gaming industry in many ways.
