Celebrities, Politicians And Even Twitter CEO Lose Followers After Twitter Purge

A week after Twitter locked, suspended, and/or purged millions of ‘fake,’ ‘bot’ and ‘suspicious’ Twitter accounts, a number of well known high follower Twitter accounts have seen a noticeably large drop in their follower counts. 

As we reported last week, the suspensions and shutdowns were part of a continued effort by Twitter to clear up its platform and institute proper quality controls.

Many of the accounts that were blocked between May and June are those suspected to have been routinely used by trolls or remotely controlled bots, that contravene Twitter’s terms of service. 

According to CNN, Katy Perry was hit the hardest, losing around 2.8 million followers, while Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift each lost about 2 million each.  

“Follower counts may continue to change more regularly as part of our ongoing work to proactively identify and challenge problematic accounts. This is another step to improve Twitter and ensure everyone can have confidence in their followers,” Twitter have said.  

Other celebrities and well-known Twitter personalities such as Stephen Fry, Ellen DeGeneres, and Shaquille O’Neal also took significant hits.  

Both US President Donald Trump and the Former President Barack Obama have also been hit by significant dips in followers, having lost more than 2.4 million followers combined. Barack Obama was stung for 2.3 million while somewhat bizarrely Donald Trump lost only 305,000.  

Even the Twitter CEO wasn’t unaffected.

Jack Dorsey also announced that he had lost more than 200,000 followers in the purge. 

“We understand this may be hard for some, but we believe accuracy and transparency make Twitter a more trusted service for public conversation,” wrote Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s Legal, Policy, Trust and Safety head. 

According to a Twitter spokesperson, most users will see a decrease in followers of some 6% when the cuts are averaged out. In real terms, this means that most everyday regular accounts will see a reduction in followers of about three or four followers, overall.