Twitter Increases Follow Limit To 5,000 Accounts

Twitter has a somewhat complex system of checks and balances in place when it comes to following other Twitter users and being followed by them. This is to avoid so-called "aggressive following," that is, the practice of following tons of people at once, then unfollowing everyone who didn't follow you back in a day or two. To help curb aggressive following, Twitter has a standard cap that all accounts are subjected to.

In a recent tweet, Twitter announced it has increased that standard cap from 2,000 follows to 5,000 follows. This applies for all Twitter accounts across the board, though it isn't a concrete limitation. As you've likely noticed, many people follow more accounts than 2/5k, and that's due to the balancing system Twitter uses.

As detailed in one of its Support documents, users may be able to follow more than 5,000 accounts, but it depends on their own following/being followed trend. Says Twitter, "You'll need to wait until you have more followers in order to follow more users—for example, you can't follow 10,000 people if only 100 people follow you."

Twitter goes on to state that such limits result in better site performance, limiting the amount of pointless notifications it has to send to users. The rules apply to all account types, including developer accounts and verified accounts. Says Twitter, "Based on current behavior in the Twitter community, we've concluded that this is both fair and reasonable."

SOURCE: Twitter