Twitter Says Numbers Accurate After Rahul’s Claims Of Drop In New Followers

New Delhi: Twitter on Thursday responded to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s accusation that the microblogging platform was “suppressing” the number of his followers.

A Twitter spokesperson said that follower counts are a visible feature and are meaningful and accurate, the ANI said. “Twitter has a zero-tolerance approach to platform manipulation…We fight spam and malicious automation strategically and at scale with machine learning tools, and as part of those consistent and ongoing efforts to ensure a healthy service and credible accounts, follower counts can and do fluctuate,” said the spokesperson.

“We remove millions of accounts each week for violating our policies on platform manipulation and spam. You can take a look at the latest Twitter Transparency Center update for more context. While some accounts notice a minor difference, in certain cases, the number could be higher,” the spokesperson said.

Rahul wrote to Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal on December 27 last year, alleging that the government was trying to “suppress” his reach on the platform.

“I want to bring your attention to what I believe is Twitter’s unwitting complicity in curbing free and fair speech in India… I have been reliably, albeit discreetly, informed by people at Twitter India that they are under immense pressure by the government to silence my voice,” he wrote.

“…it is perplexing that the growth in my Twitter followers has suddenly been suppressed,” Rahul stated in his letter.