Twitter's attempt to 'clear up confusion about follower counts' creates more confusion (and plenty of skepticism)

In the last several days, many Twitter users have been noticing that their follower counts have dropped significantly:

So I have actually lost 30k followers in 4 hours? Is that even possible? Parler iced? Is this to please @JoeBiden? Does he know what Twitter is ?

— Brian Kilmeade (@kilmeade) January 9, 2021

https://twitter.com/RealJamesWoods/status/1347950788589486081

I don’t mind losing followers I just prefer to do it the fun way by tweeting something that makes everyone mad

— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) January 9, 2021

As of now, I'm down 5200 followers since the purge began.

— James Lindsay, king of your mom (@ConceptualJames) January 9, 2021

The avalanche of people asking what’s happening caused Twitter to put this out to “clear up confusion”:

To clear up confusion about fluctuations in follower counts:

In order to prevent spam, we regularly challenge accounts to confirm details like email and phone number. Until that info is confirmed, these accounts aren’t included in follower counts. https://t.co/8BYcBCmxxA

— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) January 9, 2021

Ironically, Twitter’s attempt to clear up confusion ended up causing more of it, with some skepticism thrown in the mix as well:

I'm curious. Can you show us the accounts you're challenging?

— Pam (@lifebythecreek) January 9, 2021

Is this only conservative accounts? How do I sign up for the liberal treatment?

— Breanna Morello ?? (@breannamorello) January 9, 2021

Funny. Because I was removed as a follower to multiple accounts today and I wasn’t asked to confirm anything.

— Christopher C. Smith (@ChristopherCSm4) January 9, 2021

You can go to https://t.co/LBYpinlsc5 to see the follow/unfollow changes of your own or anybody else’s accounts. I’ll be spending time today studying how these “spam prevention” efforts affected conservatives vs. liberals. Surely the results should be similar & consistent, right? https://t.co/OGKlqF0Svj

— Brandon Straka (@BrandonStraka) January 9, 2021

I lost 48,000 followers/donors. That does not make sense. I assist veterans in crisis and in need on this platform in real time. This is absolutely unacceptable!

— Code of Vets ™ (@codeofvets) January 9, 2021

Just on certain accounts though … lol https://t.co/68xzd8S4MX

— The?FOO (@PolitiBunny) January 9, 2021

If you regularly do this why its it only showing now? https://t.co/XRJhkikOBK

— jeffswarens (@jeffswarens) January 9, 2021

Suffice to say, not everybody’s buying Twitter’s explanation.

Tens of thousands of accounts at once is not regular maintenance.

Twitter lies. https://t.co/MEJ2hEC7qL

— Katica ?? (@GOPPollAnalyst) January 9, 2021

??? what a load of donkey shit! That’s correct, Donkey Shit ?

You have removed 125,000 of my followers since January 6th 2021. That’s 125K in 3 days ??? https://t.co/0y7k9a40dX

— Kristy Swanson (@KristySwansonXO) January 9, 2021