Twitter has blocked tens of millions of accounts in recent months

Twitter has been cleaning up its user base, blocking about 70 million in the months of May and June. It is an attempt to tackle the number of bots and other fake accounts.

The Washington Post spoke to a source familiar with Twitter’s plans, after which a spokesperson for the social network confirmed the coverage. The data shows that more than a million accounts were blocked per day in May and June, on average, and Twitter is still in the process of cleaning up this month.

By tackling the user base, Twitter wants to tackle the number of fake accounts on the network. Twitter has been criticized in recent years for bots that spread fake information in order to influence public opinion. Russian bots, among others, are said to spread disinformation about things like the US elections and Brexit.

Twitter’s actions could cause user numbers to shrink in the second quarter, according to The Washington Post. Twitter has been struggling with stagnating growth lately, so it was looking for ways to increase its user base.