Twitter has been taking a stand lately, fighting back against fake news, trolls and outright fake accounts. In May and June, the company suspended over 70 million fake accounts, according to The Washington Post, who also cites that the pace is continuing in July. The amount of fake accounts that Twitter has suspended has more than doubled since around October, when it revealed to Congress how Russia used fake accounts on Twitter to influence the 2016 Presidential Election.
It’s worth pointing out that this very aggressive removal of unwanted accounts may actually result in a decline of monthly active users for the second quarter. Which would be rare for Twitter, as the company usually announces increased monthly active users, but the total number of users has been stagnant over the past year or so. Twitter would not comment to The Washington Post on whether or not this would result in a decline in its monthly active user numbers, however. Investors will find out just how much of a decline this actually is, when Twitter announces its second quarter results later this month, expected to take place on July 27.
To see Twitter aggressively going after these bots and trolls on its platform is definitely refreshing, especially since it is putting this ahead of its own growth. Suspending these accounts will likely stall its growth for the foreseeable future, and that will also likely cost Twitter quite a bit of money as the stock price will also plummet once these numbers come out later this month. But Twitter is looking to have a quality platform here, and not one that can be manipulated, like it has been. Which is important for users of the platform. Twitter has become such a huge platform for just about everything, it’s not a surprise that it is taking a stand here. Twitter may state how many fake accounts it has suspended in its next quarterly report, but there is a chance that it won’t happen, unless the decline is pretty steep. That way Twitter can explain the decline. Either way, all eyes are on its next earnings report in just a few weeks.