Twitter begins operation to wipe out millions of “fake” followers

Twitter will on Thursday run a major operation to delete accounts of fake followers, its president in charge of trust and safety has announced.

Vijaya Gadde said in a statement that the clean-up will affect accounts that were frozen over the years for suspicious behavior.

“This week, we’ll be removing these locked accounts from follower counts across profiles globally. As a result, the number of followers displayed on many profiles may go down,” she wrote.

The New York Times newspaper said Twitter planned to begin deleting tens of millions of accounts starting Thursday,
slashing the total followship by six per cent.

The measure is reportedly aimed at users who have inflated their followships by paying for automated accounts to fake social media influence.