Keeping Medium Authentic

Removing spam accounts, and what that means for you

The relationship between readers and writers is at the heart of Medium. With that in mind, we want to ensure that your follower and following counts only reflect quality users. As part of our ongoing work to provide the best possible user experience, we’ll be removing spam accounts from your follower and following counts across Medium starting today.

What Does This Mean For Writers and Publications?

You may see a change in your follower and following counts. However you’ll gain a more accurate sense of your audience size now that follower counts only contain authentic, quality users. Rest assured — this change will not affect your distribution or earnings.

Followers remain an important path to audience growth and best practices are still relevant. If you haven’t already, connect to Twitter so your audience can easily find you on Medium. Consider optimizing your Medium bio with relevant keywords, and post consistently in one or two topic(s) to increase discovery. And, of course, share your Medium work on other trusted platforms where you’ve built an audience.

What Is Medium Doing About Follow Counts Going Forward?

We will continue removing spam and other disingenuous accounts from Medium on a daily basis, as well as accurately reflecting your unfollow actions. So you won’t see significant shifts in your follower or following counts going forward, and you can trust that your followers are authentic and engaged. You can always flag an account you suspect of spam or other rules violations using our reporting tools for us to take a look at.

Lastly, from all of us, thank you for your understanding as well as your contributions to our growing, vibrant space.