Spammers on the internet are becoming many with the advancements in technology. One of the tactics they use on Twitter is rapidly following accounts in bulk with a hope that they will follow back.
Twitter, in an effort to remove spammers from its platform, has cut the number of accounts you can follow per day from 1000 to 400. This is in order to check the bulk following and un-following that most of these spammers have been doing.
https://twitter.com/TwitterSafety/status/1115308523901079557?s=19
However, the cut down in the maximum number of accounts you can follow per day is not the only measure Twitter has taken to prevent spammers. In the recent past, a number of tools and services were banned from Twitter because of doing a similar thing. There were apps people used to utilize to massively follow and un-follow people. Some of the accounts making use of these apps were also suspended.
There are also tools people use to create and send annoying auto Direct messages. Twitter has been in a battle to ban such apps from operating on its platform.
On the choice of the number 400 and whether they might still be too many, Twitter explained that they looked a follow behavior at various thresholds and selected 400 as a reasonable limit that stopped most spam while not affecting legitimate users.
https://twitter.com/yoyoel/status/1115366650390425602?s=19
Related Article: What are Twitter lists and how can you use them?
How to protect yourself from spammers on Twitter
Use Two-Step Verification: To protect your account from hackers, enable the two-step verification process. It means that a person will need more than just your password to get into your account. They’ll need your password and a unique code that is usually sent to your mobile device to access your account.
Report a Spamming Profile: Twiter made improvements to its reporting tool. If you’ve found a profile that you feel is promoting spam or being abusive visit the profile and click on the gear icon on the profile page. Then select Report from the menu and selecting They’re posting spam.
Report Individual Spam Tweets: Did you receive spam or abusive tweet? You can report the individual tweet. Navigate to the tweet you’d like to report and click on the more icon. Select Report and select It’s Spam and submit your report.
Block: If you find that an individual is sending you spam messages or inappropriate material, just block them. Not only does this disable them from seeing your updates and clear them from your Twitter stream, but if a reasonable number of people block a user, Twitter can suspend their account.
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