If you haven’t seen the latest Twitter news, they’ve announced they will be removing any and all locked accounts from your follower count as part of their effort to keep their platform “healthy”.
Why is Twitter Removing Locked Accounts from Your Follower Count?
Your follower counts are visible to all users on Twitter, and they want to make sure everyone has confidence that their follower counts are not only accurate but meaningful.
Twitter has locked accounts due to sudden changes in said accounts behavior, and in those situations, they’ve reached out to the owners of the accounts and unless they validate the account and reset their password, the account remains locked with no ability to log in, rendering it a waste of Twitter space.
Twitter says, “This week, we’ll 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.”
(Remember this activity was pre-planned if and when you see it happen on your own accounts)
Will This Impact Tweets, Likes, and Retweets?
Twitter continues to mention its ongoing work is to improve the health of conversations on Twitter. This will encompass all aspects of their platform, including tweets, likes, and retweets.
“This specific update is focused on followers because it is one of the most visible features on our service and often associated with accountability credibility. Once an account is locked, it cannot Tweet, like or Retweet and it is not served ads.” Twitter says.
What do you think about Twitter’s latest decision? I think this update will work in their favor, and ultimately in the favor of Twitter users, ensuring that their tweets reach more than just vacant accounts.