MIT reports Twitter lost over 1 million users since Elon Musk’s takeover

One week into Elon Musk’s ownership of Twitter, the social media platform has reportedly lost over one million followers.

“We have observed an uptick in people deactivating their accounts and also Twitter suspending accounts,” said Christopher Bouzy, founder of the anti-disinformation and bot tracker platform Bot Sentinel.

MIT Technology Review reported that Bot Sentinel analyzed 3.1 million accounts on Twitter and “believes that around 877,000 accounts were deactivated and a further 497,000 were suspended between Oct. 27 and Nov. 1. That’s more than double the usual number.”

Bot Sentinel’s analysis watched a percentage of users with deactivated or suspended accounts before applying that percentage to the overall 237 million “monetizable daily active users” on Twitter. Based on the 5,958 accounts suspended or deleted the week before Musk’s takeover, it suggests a 208% increase in lost accounts

“We also believe the increase in suspensions is from Twitter taking action on accounts purposely violating Twitter’s rules to see if they can push the limits of ‘free speech,’” Bouzy told MIT Technology Review. He believes some users are testing what can and will not stay posted, such as posts using hate speech.

The rise in hate speech on Twitter comes after the company paused some of its moderation tools, Bloomberg reported. What was once hundreds of employees removing posts is now a 15-person team at Twitter, all as part of a “corporate transition to reduce opportunities for insider risk,” Twitter’s head of safety and integrity Yoel Roth tweeted.

Neither Musk nor Twitter acknowledged MIT Technology Review or Bot Sentinel’s findings.

“I believe if users continue to deactivate their accounts en masse, it will become a significant problem for the platform,” Bouzy said. “If left-leaning and marginalized people leave the platform, Twitter will not differ from Parler or Truth Social.”

Musk’s first week running Twitter was met with one controversy after another beginning with the widespread firing of Twitter’s previous board of executives and legal team, followed by a plan for monthly payments for users to stay verified. Musk then confirmed the process of resurrecting suspended accounts would not be ready until after the midterm elections, assuaging some discourse about what the possible return of former President Donald Trump to the platform could mean for the midterms.

On Friday, less than half of Twitter’s employees were laid off. Five employees sued the company for violating California labor laws that require large employers with more than 100 employees to provide 60 days of notice before any mass layoffs. Former Attorney General candidate Shannon Liss-Riordan filed the class-action lawsuit against Twitter, Boston.com reported.

By Monday, verified users who changed their name to “Elon Musk” were hit with suspensions, including comedian Kathy Griffin. Other comedians like Sarah Silverman found her account temporarily locked on Sunday after changing her name to Musk’s and tweeting “I am a freedom of speech absolutist and I eat doody for breakfast every day.”