Twitter’s stock dropped more than five percent on Monday following reports that the social network has been deleting over 1 million fake accounts per day. It was down as much as 9 percent during intraday trading.
According to Variety, “Twitter suspended more than 70 million fake accounts this past May and June, and has continued to delete more than 1 million accounts per day into July,” with suspensions doubling since October.
Even President Trump acknowledged the suspensions, posting, “Twitter is getting rid of fake accounts at a record pace. Will that include the Failing New York Times and propaganda machine for Amazon, the Washington Post, who constantly quote anonymous sources that, in my opinion, don’t exist – They will both be out of business in 7 years!”
In a statement to Business Insider, a company spokesman claimed that the suspensions were “nothing new and is part of our ongoing work to improve the health of the public conversation on Twitter.”
Twitter’s CFO took to the platform in an effort to better explain the account removals:
The social media platform started its mass account purge in January, with public figures reporting significant follower losses.
Nearly 50 percent of CNN’s followers were reported as fake by TwitterAudit.com, while failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, former president Barack Obama, and feminist commentator Anita Sarkeesian have all been previously reported to have high levels of fake followers too.
Earlier this year, the company enjoyed its first profitable quarter, but also reported a decline in active users in Amerca.
Update — This article was updated with Twitter’s stock price at market close.
Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington, or like his page at Facebook.
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