X Issues Warning of Potential Follower Loss as Another Bot Sweep Commences

Twitter is warning users that they may experience a decrease in their follower counts as the company undertakes a concerted effort to remove spammers and bots from its platform. In an announcement shared by Twitter’s Safety account, the company revealed plans to initiate a substantial proactive campaign to purge accounts that violate its policies regarding platform manipulation and spamming.

Today, we're kicking off a significant, proactive initiative to eliminate accounts that violate our Rules against platform manipulation and spam. While we aim for accuracy in the accounts we remove, we're casting a wide net to ensure X remains secure and free of bots. As a…

— Safety (@Safety) April 4, 2024

The recent initiative to address spam on X coincides with the appointment of two new leaders to its safety team: Kylie McRoberts, who now serves as Head of Safety, and Yale Cohen, who joined as the Head of Brand Safety and Advertiser Solutions after previously working at Publicis Media.

Spam has been a longstanding concern for X, with Elon Musk expressing a desire to combat it more effectively as early as November 2022. Despite these efforts, tackling spam has proven to be challenging, particularly following significant layoffs that left X’s Trust & Safety team understaffed. Additionally, the position of Head of Safety remained vacant for 10 months after previous departures under Musk’s leadership, including Ella Irwin and Yoel Roth.

Furthermore, advancements in artificial intelligence have presented new challenges in curbing spam effectively.