Twitter has announced a new limit to the number of accounts users can follow per day from 1000 to 400, in an effort to fight spam-like behaviour.
Follow, unfollow, follow, unfollow. Who does that? Spammers. So we’re changing the number of accounts you can follow each day from 1000 to 400. Don’t worry, you’ll be just fine.
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— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) April 8, 2019
Though 400 may seem like a random number, the company based its decision on how users abused the follow-unfollow (churning) technique. Users often apply the technique to trick people into following them back.
“We found that nearly half of all accounts who made more than 400 follows per day were churning. That amounted to more than 20 million follows each day, and a high rate of blocks and spam reports,” explained Yoel Roth, Twitter’s head of site integrity.
We found that nearly half of all accounts who made more than 400 follows per day were churning. That amounted to more than 20 million follows each day, and a high rate of blocks and spam reports — a clear signal that inorganic follows are super annoying.
— Yoel Roth (@yoyoel) April 8, 2019
In tightening the follow limit, the company believes its platform will become a more organic community.
Feature image: Twitter