Report: Twitter to Purge 'Tens of Millions' of 'Suspicious' Accounts This Week

Twitter will purge “tens of millions” of “suspicious” accounts on Thursday, according to a report.

The New York Times reported on Wednesday that the platform will be “removing tens of millions of suspicious accounts from users’ followers on Thursday, signaling a major new effort to restore trust on the popular but embattled platform.”

“The reform takes aim at a pervasive form of social media fraud. Many users have inflated their followers on Twitter or other services with automated or fake accounts, buying the appearance of social influence to bolster their political activism, business endeavors or entertainment careers,” the New York Times explained, adding that on Thursday, “many users, including those who have bought fake followers and any others who are followed by suspicious accounts, will see their follower numbers fall.”

The Times further added that “tens of millions” of accounts will be affected, resulting in a drop of “about 6 percent” of Twitter’s accounts.

In January, millions of Twitter users disappeared on the platform, while on Monday, Twitter’s stock dropped more than five percent at market close, falling as much as nine percent during intraday trading, following reports that the company has been deleting more than one million fake accounts a day.