Noticed a drop in your Twitter follower count? You're not alone: Twitter announced today that the company is purging spammers and correcting "data inconsistencies". We haven't noticed any significant change on Mashable's Twitter account yet, but if you've been the target of spam followers, you might notice a "significant" change in both your follower and following counts.
Twitter writes:
For some time, the follower and following counts we display have been incorrect for some folks. We’re soon to push a change that will address this issue. This means that the count you see in your sidebar should match what you see on your follower and following pages.
However, a consequence of this change is that follower counts will drop for some people. In particular, those with large followings may see significant changes as we correct for spam accounts and data inconsistencies. No legitimate followings should be affected—we’re just cleaning up artifacts in the system.