Twitter Says Removal of Fake Accounts Does Not Hurt User Metrics

Twitter said on Monday it has removed fake accounts but that does not impact its reported user metrics as was indicated in a report by The Washington Post.

The newspaper had said the social media company had suspended more than 70 million fake accounts in May and June, leading to a decline of monthly active users in the second quarter.

"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," CFO Ned Segal tweeted on Monday.

"If we removed 70M accounts from our reported metrics, you would hear directly from us."

Shares of Twitter fell 9 percent on Monday after a report said the social media company had suspended more than 70 million fake accounts in May and June, which could lead to a decline of monthly active users in the second quarter.

The slump wiped about $3 billion (roughly Rs.20,600 crores) from the microblogging site's market valuation, which had stood at about $35 billion on Friday. Twitter shares were last down 8.6 percent at $42.62 (roughly Rs. 2,900).

"Such reaction is due likely to the assumption that the lower user count would attract less ad dollars," Morningstar analyst Ali Mogharabi said.

Mogharabi, however, pointed to big advertisers now paying more attention to the quality content alongside which their ads are placed.

© Thomson Reuters 2018