Twitter admits to unfollow bug

If any of you have noticed that you’re losing your followers on Twitter, you’re not imagining things. Twitter has admitted to an ‘unfollow’ bug, which the company says they have engineers working on. Users notice the ‘unfollow’ when they go through their following list and find the entry there with a ‘follow’ button next to it. However, when they click through to the user’s profile, they will see that they are indeed following them. Twitter says on their support blog , “A person you’ve recently followed shows in your following tab, but appears with a follow icon so it looks like you’re not following them, as shown in the image below. Visit their profile if you’d like to confirm you’re following them.” Twitter says not to worry, that it’s a known issue and they have engineers working on it.

What the unfollow bug does

Of course, Twitter users have not been silent on the matter. Many users thought that the unfollows were only their imagination. When you follow a user, not only are you more able to communicate with them, you’re also able to engage with them over Direct Message. This is what proves to be a problem with many users, including myself, where Direct Messaging hasn’t been allowed because your recipient has ‘unfollowed’ you or you’ve ‘unfollowed’ them. However, in my case in particular, my tweets were showing up to the user who ‘unfollowed’ me, I just was not able to Direct Message them.

Twitter currently has 140 million users and is six years old. The company has flourished into a social network of its own and offers a level of engagement that is surprising given the 140 character limit. For users to unknowingly be ‘disconnected’ from other Twitter users is a big deal and one can hope that Twitter fixes the issue quickly. Have you noticed a problem with your Twitter account and follower numbers? Let us know in the comments section below.