Twitter Removes Fake Accounts

Twitter has deleted millions of fake accounts in an effort to curb social media fraud. In May and June, the popular social media company reportedly deleted 70 million Twitter accounts, including those found to be bots. In addition, Twitter said that it has been stopping the creation of 50,000 fake accounts daily with the aid of an automated system that can detect suspicious accounts. Following the news of the purge of fake accounts, the company’s stocks slid by 5.4%. As a result, some investors raised concerns that the deletion of these accounts would affect Twitter’s total number of users. However, Ned Segal, Twitter’s chief financial officer, explained that the deleted accounts were already inactive for at least 30 days. Despite the decline in stocks, investment bank and financial services firm Goldman Sachs believes that investors should still buy stocks from Twitter. According to one of the firm’s analysts, Twitter’s effort to enhance user engagement can result in a net gain by next year. On a different note, several marketers believe that the Twitter purge will provide more accurate data, which can help make campaigns more effective. Without the purge, Twitter’s follower count becomes inaccurate, making it difficult to measure a brand’s influence. Instead of the follower count, marketers prefer to monitor user engagement, such as post views and shares, as this influences revenue. They also emphasized that fake accounts do not boost user engagement, which is why they welcome Twitter’s removal of these accounts. Marketers also hope that other social media platforms, like Instagram, will follow Twitter’s example.