Former President Obama’s Twitter follower count dropped by more than 2 million as the platform continued its removal of fake and inactive accounts.
Obama had 104 million Twitter followers before Twitter’s purge, according to The Hill, and had around 101 million by Thursday evening.
Still, the former president trails only Katy Perry and Justin Bieber on the platform, and the three boast the only accounts to have over 100 million followers.
President Trump reportedly had 53.4 million Twitter followers before the Twitter purge, and has lost around 300,000 for a Thursday evening follower count of 53.1 million. Trump remains the 18th most-followed person on Twitter.
On Wednesday, Twitter announced its intention to remove “locked accounts” from follower counts in order to “build trust and encourage healthy conversation on Twitter.” (RELATED: President Trump Brings Up Twitter Purge To Slam ‘Failing New York Times’ And Washington Post)
The drop in Twitter followers came after the platform formally announced on Wednesday that it would begin the process of removing “locked accounts” from follower counts in an effort “to build trust and encourage healthy conversation on Twitter.”
“Most people will see a change of four followers or fewer; others with larger follower counts will experience a more significant drop,” Twitter announced. “We understand this may be hard for some, but we believe accuracy and transparency make Twitter a more trusted service for public conversation.”
The worst may be over for both Obama and Trump. The social media platform states that the “most significant changes” will happen over the next few days.