New Twitter Update Will Reduce Follower Count As Locked Accounts Are Removed
On Wednesday, Twitter announced that many users may experience a drop in their number of followers. This news comes at a time when many other social media platforms are under the public and legal scrutiny. With this Twitter update, the company aims to remove the “locked accounts”.
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What Are Locked Accounts
Twitter locks an account after detecting sudden behavioral changes. This means the account has either sent a large number of unsolicited tweets or it has tweeted some misleading links. Although it is nice for the social network to tighten its security, the decision with this Twitter update affects a lot of unaware users as well.
Why is Twitter Locking Accounts
The reason for the Twitter update is that the social network plans for improving the health of conversations carried out on its platform. Twitter prioritized on followers because it is relatively a more visible feature, and reflects the credibility of the associated account. This update is an attempt to deal with fake news and spam on the social media platform.
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What Happens After The Account Is Locked?
An account cannot be used to generate any further tweets after being locked, and neither will it be served with ads. Most of these locked accounts were created by actual people. Even so, Twitter cannot confirm if the original users still have control and access to their accounts. In an attempt to let the users regain the control, Twitter reaches out to the owners and asks them to reset their password. Now with the new Twitter update, the social network plans of removing the accounts which do not reset their passwords after being promptly notified.
The social network claims that the new Twitter update will not affect an account’s Monthly Active User (MAU) or Daily Active User (DAU) metrics. Regardless, this news is may come as a set back for long time users of the platform.