Bot purge: the reason why many users are losing followers on X (Twitter)

In the last few hours, many users of X (Twitter) are lamenting having lost considerable numbers of followers.

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X's policy on 'unauthorized automation'

Aside from the usual audience losses for other reasons, the decline in followers that many users are experiencing is due to the bot purges that Twitter is carrying out. Bots are automated accounts created to perform certain functions. In April 2025, this social network stated: "We want X to be a place where people have authentic experiences. To make this possible, we do not allow any activity that attempts to manipulate our platform or disrupt our services through inauthentic accounts, behavior, or content."

Twitter addresses, among other things, what it considers "unauthorized automation," which it defines as follows: "Automated or programmed accounts that do not comply with our Developer Policy".

The information provided by Grok about bots in X

I decided to ask Grok, Twitter's artificial intelligence, about this. It was kind enough to offer me some information on the matter. First, Grok tells me that "X does not publish regularly updated official figures, so everything is based on estimates from independent studies, platform announcements, and press reports. The figures vary greatly depending on the source".

Regarding bots, Grok also tells me: "There is no exact consensus or official figure for X. Estimates have varied historically: X (formerly Twitter) has maintained for years that spam or fake accounts represent less than 5%." Elon Musk, the current owner of that social network, estimated that percentage at the time to be around 20% (or more), "although that was before the great purges".

In its response to my questions, Twitter's AI adds: "More recent independent studies (2025-2026) place the percentage between 9-15% of total accounts, although in certain types of conversations (politics, entertainment, etc.) it can rise to 15-44%. Other more aggressive analyses suggest ranges between 25% and 68% (some even close to 80%), but these latter figures are less consensual and are usually based on traffic or activity rather than total accounts."

In X there are between 50 and 84 million active bots

In absolute numbers, we're talking about tens of millions of bots: "X currently has around 550-560 million monthly active users (MAU) according to 2025-2026 data. Applying the most cited range (9-15%), we would be talking about approximately 50 to 84 million bots. If we take a conservative midpoint of 10-12%, it would be around 55-67 million", as Grok tells me, adding: "most reliable sources indicate that between 1 in 10 and 1 in 7 active accounts is a bot, although bot activity (likes, replies, spam) is usually much higher than their numerical proportion."

Grok has presented in this graph the percentages and figures of bots in X, based on independent studies (MAU means monthly active users), on three different estimated percentages:

The purges that X is doing to eliminate those accounts

Regarding the purges, Grok tells me: "X has been carrying out continuous purges against bots and spam for years (it's not a one-off event). There isn't a "major purge" specifically announced for April 2026, but there have been several recent notable actions". The last major purge took place in October 2025: "The most concrete and publicized purge was the removal of 1.7 million bots that were flooding replies with spam (promotions, crypto, irrelevant links). It was announced directly by X's head of product, Nikita Bier, and a rapid improvement in the quality of replies was noted." Previous purges were even larger: "In 2024, X suspended 800 million accounts for manipulation and spam rule violations. In the second half of 2025, "several hundred million" more were also removed. Many of these suspensions are for quickly recreating bots or bot farm accounts."

Regarding the current purge, Grok indicates that it began in February 2026 and is a "new initiative against AI-powered bots." "Stricter 'human-only interaction' rules were implemented (if there is no real manual activity in the app, the account is at high risk of permanent suspension). This is part of the ongoing effort against automated spam." Grok provided me with this other chart showing the current estimates of bots in X and the number of bots removed in the October 2025 purge.

Obviously, nobody likes losing followers, but having fake followers doesn't make an account better. On the contrary, it creates a false image of relevance that distorts reality. It's better to have fewer followers but for them to be authentic. Personally, I've noticed the loss of a few dozen followers due to this purge. I won't miss them.

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Image: Grok.