Elon Musk could lose 13 million followers if he goes ahead with Twitter buyout

It looks like Elon Musk will be forced to finally go ahead with his Twitter buyout plans. But he could live to regret it, as his plans to rid the platform of spam accounts could seriously damage his own following.

According to Codeclan, Musk could lose as many as 13,478,400 followers were he to purge the social network of its fake bot accounts.

Meanwhile, Justin Bieber would lose the most followers, with 27,636,400 of his followers estimated to be fake.

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This is because, according to Musk's own statements, he wants to rid Twitter of spam and bot accounts.

Doing so is so important to the billionaire that he used it as an excuse for pulling out of his Twitter buyout deal altogether. However, he has now backtracked on this and agreed to go ahead with the sale.

Linda Scott of CodeClan said: "We think it is incredibly important that ‘bot’ and spam accounts get removed from the platform of Twitter. The vast number of spam accounts is harming user experience, endangering legitimate users and profiles.

"Whilst we do understand that the problem is more complex than simply removing a user, the issue needs to be addressed and rules put in place."

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Other users that would lose substantial numbers of followers include Barack Obama, Katy Perry, Rihanna, Taylor Swift, Kim Kardashian and more.

In June, Musk's lawyers claimed Twitter was "actively resisting and thwarting" his attempts to access data on users and followers, and said it was a 'material breach' of his $44bn buyout deal that should allow him to walk away.

Musk has since U-turned on his U-turn and said he will go ahead with the buyout in order to create what he calls 'X, the everything app'.

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