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Shaq and Ray Lewis both hit hard in massive social media purge

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The “Twitter Purge” is underway, and it doesn’t discriminate about who it takes out.

We’ve learned that huge names, including presidents — both current and former — along with hall of fame athletes aren’t quite as popular as once thought.

Twitter is cleaning up its act, with the hope of eliminating fake followers.

“Over the years, we’ve locked accounts when we detected sudden changes in account behavior,” said Twitter Legal, Policy and Trust & Safety Lead Vijaya Gadde. “In these situations, we reach out to the owners of the accounts and unless they validate the account and reset their passwords, we keep them locked with no ability to log in. This week, we’ll be removing these locked accounts from follower counts across profiles globally. As a result, the number of followers displayed on many profiles may go down.”

The issue is purchasing followers to inflate one’s profile.

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Companies like Devumi has allowed clients to simply buy Twitter followers in bulk.

The New York Times profiled Devumi in January, and highlighted Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Lewis as someone who reportedly bought followers.

As a result, the former Ravens great’s profile lost about half of his followers.

Not all of the people targeted by Twitter created their own list.

Shaquille O’Neal lost about 1 million followers, but still has about 14.6 million.

Do you care if celebrities buy fake Twitter followers?
It seems that some famous folks pick up fake followers through no fault of their own.

The Times article also focused on ESPN college football analyst Joey Galloway as someone who bought followers. The former NFL player went from 99k to 43.6k.

Former ESPN reporter-turned-politcal-analyst Britt McHenry was called out by the Times, and she lost around 140,000 followers.

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President Donald Trump took a hit, losing 300,000 followers so far, while former President Obama fell by 2 million.

There doesn’t appear to be evidence that either of them bought followers from Devumi or any similar sites.

At this point, nobody seems to know for sure if the “Twitter Purge” is complete, or if there will be more big names losing big numbers.

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Mike is an 11-time Michigan Emmy Award winner who has spent nearly 30 years working in sports media.
Mike has spent nearly 30 years in all aspects of sports media, including on-air, 10 at ESPN and another 10 at Fox Sports Detroit. He now works as a TV agent, and lives with his family in West Bloomfield, MI.
Birthplace
Sudbury, Massachusetts
Honors/Awards
11-time Michigan Emmy winner
Education
Emerson College
Books Written
The Longest Year: One Family's Journey Of Life, Death, And Love/If These Walls Could Talk: Detroit Tigers/If These Walls Could Talk: Detroit Lions
Topics of Expertise
Sports




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