NATIONWIDE – Twitter announced it will remove millions of suspicious accounts from its platform.

The decision comes nearly six months after a New York Times investigation discovered that a firm sold millions of fake followers to customers wanting to boost their follower counts.

Accounts with sudden behavioral changes have been locked for years. The company previously reached out to the owners of those accounts and unless they validated their identity they were locked out. Those locked accounts will now be removed around the world. 

Twitter said most people will lose "four followers or less." However, accounts with a large following might see significant drops.

"This is another step to improve Twitter and ensure everyone can have confidence in their followers," stated Vijaya Gadde in the Twitter blog post.