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| Pakistani Twitter users including Imran Khan and Maryam Nawaz have decreased in followers, what is the reason? |
On Pakistani social media, where there have been various trends related to political turmoil in the past few days, on Friday evening, many Twitter users appeared to complain of a sudden decrease in the number of their followers.
This trend was not only seen in the accounts of ordinary users but even the accounts of famous personalities with millions of followers were not spared and everyone experienced a reduction in their 'followers' on Twitter.
Among the most followed people on Twitter in Pakistan, former Prime Minister Imran Khan, PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz, and former cricket captain Wasim Akram are among the users whose followers saw a slight drop on Friday.
Ever since Elon Musk took the helm of Twitter, he has been vowing to crack down on the presence of 'bots' or fake accounts. This is the reason why some Twitter users seem to associate the decrease in followers with the same move by Elon Musk.
Maryam Nawaz's 14,000 followers and Imran Khan's 11,000 followers have 'flown'
A review of Social Blade, an analytics company on social media platforms, revealed that there was definitely a drop in Twitter users' followers on Friday.
In this regard, a review of former Prime Minister Imran Khan's Twitter account on Social Blade revealed that the followers of Imran Khan, who had more than 1.19 million followers, saw a decrease of more than 11,800 followers on Friday evening.
Incumbent Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, who has 6.6 million followers on Twitter, lost more than 8,000 followers on Friday and Saturday.
The chief organizer of Muslim League-N, Maryam Nawaz, who has more than 8 million followers, lost about 14,600 of her followers on Friday evening.
Federal Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto's followers decreased by 3534 followers on Friday and by Saturday morning, it decreased by more than 2900 more.
Cricket legend Wasim Akram's number of more than 3800 followers also decreased in just one day.
The followers of Pakistani actress Mahira Khan, who has three million followers, also decreased by around two and a half thousand.
People who have Twitter handles with millions and millions of followers may feel the loss of a few thousand followers as a straw in the camel's mouth, but for those who keep track of their follower count, this downward graph is no less than a bitter taste.
"First the blue ticked and now this"
It is possible that some people may not immediately feel the pain of a sudden drop in followers. For that, just know that the number of followers has often been more or less oxygen for Twitter users ever since social media became an important tool for accessing information and disseminating news quickly.
The decline in followers was most complained about by journalists and anchors.
TV anchor Paras Jahanzeb wrote that 'Four, five thousand followers have decreased so far. Someone, please guide what is happening and why.'
While many users complained about the loss of thousands of followers, many tried to share their grief over the loss of followers that could be counted on their fingers.
And among them, there were many users whose grief of removing the blue tick marks from the legacy verified account was renewed.
A journalist named Nausheen Yusuf wrote, "Almost two thousand followers left." First, the blue tick went, and now this.
What is the reason for the decrease in Twitter followers?
The debate about the lack of followers on Twitter has its place, but it should be remembered that since Elon Musk took over Twitter, various features and policies have been changed from time to time and he has been criticized by users for this. It also has to be faced.
However, he repeatedly reiterated his commitment to remove inactive or spam accounts.
On December 1, 2022, Elon Musk in one of his tweets announced the elimination of spam accounts, saying that with this process, users may see a decrease in the number of their followers.
We spoke to Shahzad Ahmed, country director of digital rights organization 'Bytes for All' to find out the reasons behind the decline in Twitter followers. They attributed this to bots (or fake accounts) and the crackdown against them.
According to Shahzad Ahmed, Elon Musk has made many changes in Twitter's algorithm, and as a result of these changes, such accounts are being closed and this process has been going on for a long time.
They say that most people or businesses increase their followers with fake accounts. Many people spend regular money to increase their followers, including many political parties. Those who have been regularly researched.
According to Shehzad Ahmed, "There are many ghost accounts that SCO companies use to pretend and show off how many followers their company has."
He said that on Twitter's behalf, "such an inactive account receives a message that it should reply to it within 72 hours, if the user does not respond, the account is closed."
So, there are various companies, especially SCO companies, who have created numerous accounts and are giving them followers from TweetDeck, but the traffic on Twitter comes from organic engagement, rather than account followers. Is. So those who don't have online engagement don't get impressions (likes, retweets).
According to Shahzad, the changes in the algorithm and the elimination of the ghost account led to a large decrease in the number of followers these are the main reasons. While the removal of the blue tick has also played a role in reducing the following. '
In early April, Elon Musk admitted in a live interview with the BBC that running Twitter has been "quite painful".
The billionaire entrepreneur also said that if the right person came along, he would sell the Twitter company to him.
Musk, who also runs carmaker Tesla and rocket firm SpaceX, bought Twitter for $44 billion in October last year.
During an interview with the BBC, he also defended his policies for running the company.