Twitter nixes 70M accounts in two months amid crackdown: report

Twitter has steeply increased the number of suspensions it’s dolling out amid criticism over harassment and fake accounts.

Twitter suspended over 70 million accounts in May and June, and has booted profiles at a similar pace so far this month, according to data obtained by The Washington Post.

The rate of suspensions has doubled since October when Twitter began to receive heightened scrutiny after reports on how much its platform was manipulated by Russian trolls seeking to intervene in the 2016 election. But the platform has long been criticized for its use by terrorists and their sympathizers, as well as prolific abuse and harassment.

{mosads}Some have speculated that Twitter has been reluctant to kick users, even fake ones off, out of concern of hurting its user growth numbers, which would likely impact its bottom line and stock value.

The Post reported that the increased push to boot unwanted users could lead to a decrease in the overall count of monthly users in the second fiscal quarter of 2018.

Twitter’s willingness to ramp up enforcement might be influenced by its rising financial fortunes. Wall Street had decried the stock for years, but the company has been gaining favor with investors as it has begun to significantly increase its usership.

Sen. Mark Warner (Va.), the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, who had been one of the biggest critics of how the company handled Russian abuse, said that he believes it still had work to do.

“I wish Twitter had been more proactive, sooner,” Warner told the Post. “I’m glad that — after months of focus on this issue — Twitter appears to be cracking down on the use of bots and other fake accounts, though there is still much work to do.”