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Twitter announced today that it is going to start suspending accounts that were previously suspended – perhaps opened a new account after getting suspended, to continue using the service. The company says that once you have been suspended, you can either appeal that suspension, or you are done using Twitter. So those that have been suspended before will be suspended for good. This is all part of Twitter attempting to clean up its platform, and make it a better platform for everyone to engage on.
In recent months, Twitter has been aggressively suspending and removing accounts from its platform, as it works to get rid of the spread of misinformation and fake news, as well as bots and those abusing the service. Last month, there was a report that stated around 70 million accounts were removed in May and June. The report also mentioned that the pace was continuing in July. Twitter had stated that the removal of these accounts wouldn’t affect the company’s metrics, but it actually did. When it announced its quarterly earnings last month, light was shed on the fact that Twitter’s user-base is actually shrinking, and it lost a million monthly active users in the second quarter. Having 335 million monthly active users and about 68 million in the US.
While axing over 70 million (and what is now likely around 100 million) accounts in such a short amount of time, that does bring down the user numbers on Twitter. But as suspected, those that were suspended and removed, were not monthly active users. Which meant that the MAU numbers did not drop over the past quarter. Twitter, however, is going to have a tough road ahead, in trying to grow its platforms. With so many people using the platform to spread spam and harass other users. But many will likely prefer a Twitter platform that is full of good, genuine content, rather than content that is spam.