Nigerian celebrities gain as Twitter begins purge

Twitter kept to its promise of clamping down on “problematic” and “fake’’ accounts signaling a major new effort to restore trust on the popular platform.

In continuance with the cleanup, the social media platform announced on Tuesday that it has removed more than 143,000 apps, which violated its policies between April and June.

Social media enthusiasts had said that Twitter’s purge might affect some Nigerian “celebrities” with questionable huge following.

This latest purge kept many on edge for the fear of their followers being swept away. However, while many public figures have seen a significant drop in their followership, some Nigerian celebrities have witnessed an increase in followers since the purge began.

For instance, between July 13 and 26, Wizkid’s followers increased from 4.13 million to 4.15 million while Davido saw his numbers go from 3.85 million to 3.88 million.

Bukola Saraki, the senate president, has seen a rise in followership from 1.22 million to 1.23 million, and Japheth Omojuwa’s followers also increased from 558,000 to 561,000.

Yemi Alade’s followers rose from 286,000 to 287,100 while Tekno also had a boost from 303,000.

Tiwa Savage’s account rose from 2.2 million to 2.9 million while Don Jazzy’s followership increased from 2.77 million to 2.79 million.

Simi’s followers have risen from 388,600 to 394,200, and Adekunle Gold has also gained, going from 238,000 to 240,200.

Ben Murray-Bruce has also had a boost from 670,500 to 680,200 while Abubakar Atiku’s followers have risen from 1.4 million to 1.45 million.

Dino Melaye, who recently defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), had a significant boost from 481,100 to 490,100.

Notable personalities like Barack Obama saw a significant drop of up to 2.5 million followers.

Twitter’s main account lost 7.5 million followers in one day, going from 62.85 million to 55.35.

Kim Kardashian-West lost 1.7 million followers; Rihanna lost 900,000 followers while Justin Bieber lost up to three million followers.

President Muhammadu Buhari’s followers have risen from 1.51 million to 1.53 million.

This is according to Social bakers, a global social media analytics company.

They also list Wizkid (4,148754 followers) Don Jazzy (2, 792 442 followers) and Dbanj (2,491 735), Tiwa Savage (2, 291211) and Banky W (2, 126, 881) as the top 5 Nigerian celebrities with the largest Twitter audience.

It remains unclear what might be responsible for the spike in Twitter followers despite the clampdown just as Twitter has announced that the purge is an ongoing project.