In Twitter Purge, big accounts lose millions of followers

Aly Pavela, a spokeswoman for Twitter, said that the work of locking and eliminating suspicious accounts of users would continue in the coming days

. action to restore confidence in his platform. Many users have inflated their accounts with automated or fake accounts, buying the appearance of social influence to support their political activism, business or entertainment careers.

When the job is done, Twitter expects it to have reduced the total count. President Trump who used Twitter as a way to speak directly to loyal voters and critics, has lost about 340,000 subscribers in the Twitter purge, hit up to 53 million 53.4 million on Wednesday. His predecessor, President Barack Obama was far more affected, losing three million supporters in about a day. (It started with many others, rising to 101 million on Thursday from 104 million the day before.)

The social media company itself was not spared. Twitter's main account lost about 12% of its subscribers (about 7.7 million) from Wednesday to Thursday. The general manager of Twitter, Jack Dorsey had lost about 230,000 supporters Thursday night

And in the interest of full disclosure: The main account of The New York Times has dropped by nearly 732,000 subscribers, beginning with about 42.3 million on Wednesday and 41.6 million on Thursday night.

But the most typical users have seen hundreds or thousands of losses. Many reporters with robust Twitter pages have seen their sequel reduced, although some have taken it in stride.

The Twitter movement could also be felt in senior government offices around the world. Paul Kagame the president of Rwanda, lost about a third of his followers on Twitter in one day. On Wednesday, Kagame, who has been Rwanda's top leader for nearly two decades, had about 1.8 million supporters. Thursday night, this number fell to 1.2 million.

Queen Rania of Jordan lost about 300,000 followers, falling to 10.6 million in one day. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the president of Turkey, lost more than 200,000, leaving him with 13 million .

Even Pope Francis paid 100,000 of his digital flock. He has $ 17 million left.

Ari Fleischer, a White House press secretary under President George W. Bush, noticed that he was shrinking on his own. "If you are a false person who follows me," he was joking "please raise your hand."

A Times investigation in January revealed that a small business in Florida was selling fake followers and other media engagement to hundreds of thousands of users across the country. world, including politicians, role models, actors and writers. The revelations have sparked calls to Congress for the Federal Trade Commission's intervention and investigations in at least two states.

Following the purge of this week's followers, the people who built their celebrity on social media were also affected. Up to now, Justin Bieber had been robbed of about three million followers, while Ariana Grande was losing about 932,000.

Some celebrities have seen more than just a lean chopped off. Kathy Ireland former swimsuit model who presides over a half-billion dollar licensing empire, lost 77% of her supporters between Wednesday and Thursday night.