Twitter announced that it is removing locked accounts from follower counts across profiles globally. This is being done as part of Twitter’s ongoing effort to build trust and encourage healthy conversation on Twitter.
Over the years, we’ve locked accounts when we detected sudden changes in account behavior. In these situations, we reach out to the owners of the accounts and unless they validate the account and reset their passwords, we keep them locked with no ability to log in. This week, we will be removing these locked accounts from follower counts across profiles globally. As a result, the number of followers displayed on many profiles may go down.
Twitter says that most people will see a change of four followers or fewer. Those who have larger follower counts will experience a more significant drop. In short, if you happen to notice that you have a smaller number of followers than before – this could be the reason why.
Locked accounts are ones in which Twitter has detected sudden changes in account behavior. Twitter may lock the account and contact the owner to confirm that they still have control over the account. Sudden changes in behavior may include: tweeting a large volume of unsolicited replies or mentions, tweeting misleading links, or if a large number of accounts block the account after mentioning them.
Twitter sometimes locks an account if they “see email and password combinations from other services posted online and believe that information could put the security of an account at risk.” When that happens, Twitter requires those accounts to change their passwords for protection. Until Twitter confirms that everything is ok, they lock the account – which makes them unable to tweet or see ads.
The accounts Twitter is focusing on are not bot accounts. Instead, these are accounts that were created by real people – but Twitter cannot confirm that the original person who opened the account still has control and access to it.