Shashi Tharoor, the Congress Member of Parliament from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, expressed his worry on Monday concerning the steady lower in his Twitter fans. He alleged that there’s a drop of 23,000 fans this yr and reached out to Elon Musk’s social media for an evidence.
Tharoor tweeted, “My @Twitter account has witnessed a gradual however secure haemorrhage of fans this yr, from a height of 8.495 million to eight.472 as of late. Attempts to procure an evidence from @TwitterIndia for this have drawn a clean. Is Twitter culling its subscriber base? If so, why each day quite than in a single fell swoop? Or are an increasing number of folks canceling their Twitter accounts? I do imagine we’ve a proper to understand.
Others additionally voiced an identical issues, with some opposition leaders additionally alleging manipulation of social media accounts belonging to the non-ruling executive contributors.
“@Twitter @TwitterBlue @elonmusk should provide an explanation for it. This has turn into a commonplace factor in India. Particularly with the accounts held through the opposition aspect, it is going down,” said Sanjay Nirupam, his same party member.
What caused Tharoor’s Twitter followers count to drop?
While no official response has been provided by Twitter to Tharoor’s question, apart from a genuine drop in followers, these may also be the potential reasons for the decline in followers and engagement:
Removal of inactive accounts?
Elon Musk, who has been actively involved with Twitter, has made changes to the platform since its acquisition, wanting to make it the best platform for ‘free speech’.
Musk recently said that Twitter would remove accounts that have been inactive for several years.
READ HERE: Twitter followers may drop as Elon Musk sets to remove inactive accounts
Bot accounts inflated the follower count?
Twitter has also deactivated numerous, reportedly millions, bot or fake accounts that violated their terms of service. These accounts were following other users resulting in a decrease in followers. This could also be a potential reason affecting Tharoor’s account.
An algorithm that suppresses visibility?
Another factor could be an algorithm that suppresses visibility. Musk confirmed the existence of such an algorithm on Twitter, which affected the engagement of his account as well. However, he mentioned that the algorithm had been updated after causing significant issues.
READ HERE | Shadow banning of Musk’s Twitter account : An ‘idiotic algorithm’ behind this
Shadowbanning of account?
Some users have alleged shadowbanning, where Twitter limits the visibility of certain accounts. In one of the so-called “Twitter Files”, it was alleged that the company build blacklists and actively limited the visibility of certain accounts.
Musk has previously said that the platform will implement measures to rectify the issue. He tweeted in December, “Twitter is operating on a instrument replace that may display your true account standing, so you understand obviously you might have been shadowbanned, the explanation why and enchantment.”