If you've noticed that you lost a few followers on Twitter, just know you're not the only one and there's a reason for it. The social media platform recently did a fake-user purge and abolished all "locked" accounts (known as bots) that have resulted in serious loss of followers for some of the biggest celebrities.
According to Variety, the user to see the biggest loss is Twitter's own account that shed 7.5 million fake accounts, going from 62.85 million followers to 55.35 million. As for famous individuals, the most followed account on the platform belongs to Katy Perry who lost 1.5 million followers, dropping 1.4% to 108.1 million followers. Justin Bieber fell 1.3%, Rihanna fell 0.6%, Ellen DeGeneres declined by 2.5%, Taylor Swift 2.7%, and Lady Gaga by 1.9%.
"This specific update is focused on followers because it is one of the most visible features on our service and often associated with account credibility,” Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s legal, policy, and trust and safety lead wrote in a blog. The majority of users will only see a small drop, while those ith thousands of followers, and more, will suffer the biggest loss.