Twitter shares have dropped 9 per cent following the company’s announcement of removing 70 million fake accounts in May and June.
This spam tirade could impact the company’s overall monthly active users which are released every quarter.
According to Reuters, this drop slashed US$3bn from its market value which was around US$35bn on Friday.
Ali Mogharabi, Morningstart analyst spoke to Reuters says, “Such reaction is due likely to the assumption that the lower user count would attract less ad dollars.”
In just one day Twitter suspended more than a million accounts.
In May, the company’s systems identified and challenged more than 9.9 million potential spam or automated accounts per week. In December it was 6.4 million and September it was at 3.2 million.
The social media company says it is removing 214 per cent more accounts on a year-on-year basis for violating its spam policies.
Analysts suspect a large number of the suspended accounts were dormant, meaning their departure would have little impact on the company.
To address the issue of spam users Twitter is implementing a four step process which includes, reducing the visibility of suspicious accounts in Tweet and account metrics; improving the sign up process; auditing existing accounts for signs of automated sign-up and its expansion of its malicious behaviour detection systems.
Currently, Twitter is down 5.38 per cent at US$44.14.
