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

Doug P. | 12:35 PM on January 09, 2021

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