With the number of spam accounts and trolls growing on its platform, Twitter has now introduced tough policies that may see some users across the world losing fake followers.

Twitter identified and challenged more than 9.9 million potentially “spammy” or automated accounts per week in May this year — up from 6.4 million in December and 3.2 million in September 2017.

In a 26 June blog post, Twitter said it would take further action to challenge a large number of suspected spam accounts globally. As a result, many users may notice their own account metrics change more regularly.

We’ll be taking action to challenge a large number of suspected spam accounts globally. Some people may see their follower counts drop. This does not mean they did anything wrong.https://t.co/CNlChYyFiQ

— Twitter India (@TwitterIndia) June 27, 2018

“This is an important shift in how we display Tweet and account information to ensure that malicious actors aren’t able to artificially boost an account’s credibility permanently by inflating metrics like the number of followers,” Twitter said in a blog post by Yoel Roth, Platform Policy, and Del Harvey, VP, Trust and Safety.

The company has said people losing their follower counts should not think they did anything wrong.

Registering spam accounts is also going to get tough now, with users trying to open new accounts will now requiring to confirm either an email address or phone number when they sign up.

“This is an important change to defend against people who try to take advantage of our openness,” Twitter said in the blog post, adding: “We will be working closely with our Trust & Safety Council and other expert NGOs to ensure this change does not hurt someone in a high-risk environment where anonymity is important.”

The feature is likely to roll out later this year.

“Due to technology and process improvements during the past year, we are now removing 214 per cent more accounts for violating our spam policies on a year-on-year basis,” it added.

Twitter saw a drop in the average number of spam reports — from an average of approximately 25,000 per day in March, to approximately 17,000 per day in May.

“We’ve also seen a 10 per cent drop in spam reports from search as a result of our recent changes. These decreases in reports received means people are encountering less spam in their timeline, search, and across the Twitter product,” said the post.

Twitter currently has 330 million user accounts.

“We’re also moving rapidly to curb spam and abuse originating via Twitter’s APIs. In Q1 2018, we suspended more than 142,000 applications in violation of our rules — collectively responsible for more than 130 million low-quality, spammy tweets,” said the blog post.

The company also said it had started updating account metrics in near-real time to reduce the visibility of suspicious accounts in Tweet and account metrics.

“For example, the number of followers an account has, or the number of likes or Retweets a Tweet receives, will be correctly updated when we take action on accounts,” it added.

Twitter is also automating some processes where it sees suspicious account activity, like exceptionally high-volume tweeting with the same hashtag, or using the same handle without a reply from the account a user has mentioned.

The microblogging platform suggests some steps users can take to protect their security on Twitter ensuring only you can access your account. These steps include two-factor authentication, regular review of third-party applications, not re-using passwords across multiple platforms or websites, and a FIDO Universal 2nd Factor (U2F) security key for login verification when signing into Twitter.

Starting today, you can use a security key for login verification when you sign in to https://t.co/I6k1ntZlAv.https://t.co/Cu3PUyBsxz

— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) June 26, 2018

Twitter also said it would continue to invest in leveraging Machine Learning  technology and partnerships with third parties.

“These issues are felt around the world, from elections to emergency events and high-profile public conversations. As we have stated in recent announcements, the public health of the conversation on Twitter is a critical metric by which we will measure our success in these areas,” the blog post said.