Social networking giant Twitter has reportedly suspended around 70 million accounts in recent months, as per a report in The Washington Post.
Twitter and other social media platforms such as Facebook Inc have been under scrutiny by U.S. lawmakers and international regulators for doing too little to prevent the spread of false content.
The companies have been taking steps such as deleting user accounts, introducing updates and actively monitoring content to help users avoid being a victim of fake content. Twitter suspended more than 70 million accounts in May and June, and the pace has continued in July, the Post reported on Friday, citing data it obtained.
"It's hard to believe that 70 million accounts were affected when Twitter has only 336 million monthly active users (MAU)," Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter said.
Twitter's MAU is expected to grow nearly 3 percent to 337.06 in the second quarter, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
According to a Washington Post source, the aggressive removal of unwanted accounts may result in a rare decline in the number of monthly users in the second quarter.
"Due to technology and process improvements during the past year, we are now removing 214 percent more accounts for violating our spam policies on a year-on-year basis," the company said in a blog post last month.
In May, it identified and challenged more than 9.9 million potentially spammy or automated accounts per week, compared with 6.4 million in December 2017.
Shares of Twitter fell marginally to $46.50 after the bell on Friday.
