Twitter Stock Drops 5.3% Following Reports It Deletes 1 Million Fake Accounts a Day

Twitter’s stock dropped more than five percent on Monday following reports that the social network has been deleting over 1 million fake accounts per day. It was down as much as 9 percent during intraday trading.

According to Variety, “Twitter suspended more than 70 million fake accounts this past May and June, and has continued to delete more than 1 million accounts per day into July,” with suspensions doubling since October.

What's going on with $TWTR ? pic.twitter.com/tc40XQLiEl

— traderstewie (@traderstewie) July 9, 2018

Even President Trump acknowledged the suspensions, posting, “Twitter is getting rid of fake accounts at a record pace. Will that include the Failing New York Times and propaganda machine for Amazon, the Washington Post, who constantly quote anonymous sources that, in my opinion, don’t exist – They will both be out of business in 7 years!”

Twitter is getting rid of fake accounts at a record pace. Will that include the Failing New York Times and propaganda machine for Amazon, the Washington Post, who constantly quote anonymous sources that, in my opinion, don’t exist – They will both be out of business in 7 years!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 7, 2018

In a statement to Business Insider, a company spokesman claimed that the suspensions were “nothing new and is part of our ongoing work to improve the health of the public conversation on Twitter.”

Twitter’s CFO took to the platform in an effort to better explain the account removals:

Some clarifications: most accounts we remove are not included in our reported metrics as they have not been active on the platform for 30 days or more, or we catch them at sign up and they are never counted. https://t.co/nRIGE9EMcf

— Ned Segal (@nedsegal) July 9, 2018

The social media platform started its mass account purge in January, with public figures reporting significant follower losses.

Nearly 50 percent of CNN’s followers were reported as fake by TwitterAudit.com, while failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, former president Barack Obama, and feminist commentator Anita Sarkeesian have all been previously reported to have high levels of fake followers too.

Earlier this year, the company enjoyed its first profitable quarter, but also reported a decline in active users in Amerca.

Update — This article was updated with Twitter’s stock price at market close.