Twitter's clear-out of spammers has caused outrage online, with many users losing all their followers.
The micro-blogging site has inadvertently deleted legitimate followers.
Computer Weekly reporter Rebecca Thompson, whose account was among those affected, only received an automated message from the Twitter help desk.
The incident is a huge embarrassment for the micro-blogging site. Along with infuriating its users, who have lost contacts lists that have taken months to build, Twitter's credibility as a business platform has been called into question.
The company is trying to promote Twitter as a platform for connecting a business with its customers.
In spite of the backlash, Twitter was adamant no legitimate users were affected. It said: "A consequence of this change is that follower counts will drop for some people. In particular, those with large followings may see significant changes as we correct for spam accounts and data inconsistencies. No legitimate followings should be affected-we're just cleaning up artifacts in the system."
