Spam and Fraud Fights Come at a Cost as Twitter Growth Slows Down Over Clean-Up Project

Online news and social networking service, Twitter has seen its stock fall 20.5% due to its efforts to purge the platform of fake accounts, according to a USA Today report. The decline, Twitter’s second most significant loss since 2013, represents a serious source of concern for the San Francisco based company.

Twitter lost nearly $5 billion after losing 1 million monthly active users following its decision to clean up the platform, The Guardian reported. In spite of the setbacks suffered, however, the company maintains that it is not backing down on its attempts to clamp down on spamming, as it believes the move is in the overall interest of the service and will ensure long-term growth.

Shareholders have been told to expect a continued decline in the current quarter as Twitter intensifies efforts to ensure civil discourse by stamping out bad behavior. “The continued attempts ‘to prioritize the health of the platform,’ could result in a continued decline in the current quarter,” USA Today quoted the company as telling shareholders in a letter.

Desired Outcomes Are Being Achieved

Twitter said that the measures it put in place to tackle trolls, spam, and bots are achieving the desired outcome, as abuse reports from both search and conversions have reduced by 4- and 8% respectively.

Despite the setbacks suffered, it is not all doom and gloom for Twitter. The USA Today reports states that the organization recorded a 20% rise in its revenue to $710.5 million in the second quarter of 2018, surpassing its forecast of $697.4 million for the period. The firm also made profits of $100.1 million in that time.

This comes as no surprise because most of the accounts being deleted are those that had been blocked for varying reasons such as being compromised or used for spam. As a result, they were already unable to post to the platform.

Also, it is believed that efforts to rid the platform of trolls and spam will further endear twitter to regulators and advertisers, who hope to be left with a higher quality user base.

Famous People Take a Hit

Twitter’s decision to prioritize the health of the platform resulted in many users losing followers. The imposition of measures had led to popular figures such as former president Barack Obama losing over 2 million followers.

Singer, Katy Perry lost around 3 million followers, with her follower count now down to 107 million from 110 million, according to a separate report by the New York Post. President Trump lost about 3200,000 followers, as his followers’ count fell from 53.4 million to 53.1 million.