When my Twitter (X) account first started growing, I was thrilled to see the follower number climb every day. At first, I thought more followers automatically meant more success.
But over time, I noticed something strange: although my follower count looked impressive, my engagement was steadily dropping. My tweets weren’t getting as many likes, replies, or retweets as before, even though my audience was supposedly larger.
That’s when I discovered the real issue: ghost followers.
What Are Ghost Followers on Twitter?
Ghost followers are accounts that follow you but never actually engage with your content. They are essentially “dead weight” on your profile—numbers without interaction.
There are several common types of ghost followers you might encounter:




You might attract ghost followers for several reasons. Viral posts, giveaways, or appearing in follow-back chains often bring in large waves of followers—but many of them aren’t genuine.
Some ghost followers even appear automatically, as bots are programmed to follow popular accounts in bulk.
Why Ghost Followers Are Dangerous
At first glance, ghost followers don’t look harmful. After all, they make your follower count look bigger. But the reality is that they do more harm than good.
❌ They lower your engagement rate. Twitter’s algorithm looks at how many of your followers actually interact with your posts. If most of your audience is inactive or fake, the system decides your content isn’t relevant and reduces its reach.
❌ They distort your analytics. Ghost followers skew important insights like audience demographics, interests, language, and location. This makes it difficult to understand your real audience.
❌ They damage credibility. If brands or potential partners see that you have thousands of followers but barely any engagement, they may assume you bought fake followers or aren’t influential.
❌ They pose security risks. Many ghost accounts are connected to spam networks, phishing attempts, or malicious DMs.
❌ They hurt monetization. If you’re aiming to monetize your account, Twitter and advertisers often measure the quality of your audience. Too many ghosts can stop you from qualifying or reduce payouts.
In short, ghost followers drag down your account’s performance, reputation, and safety.
Can You Remove Ghost Followers?
Yes—you absolutely can.
Twitter itself offers two manual ways to remove followers:
- Go to your Followers tab, click the three dots (…) next to a follower, and choose Remove this follower.
- Or, you can Block and then immediately Unblock an account, which also removes them from your followers.
Both methods work, but they’re extremely slow. If you have hundreds or thousands of ghost followers, scrolling through them one by one and checking each profile is almost impossible.
Why Manual Detection Is Hard
Manually detecting ghost followers is one of the most time-consuming tasks on Twitter. The platform doesn’t provide analytics for each follower—you only see their profile picture, display name, and username.
To find out if they’re inactive, fake, or spammy, you would need to visit each profile, check their activity, and decide whether to remove them.
Not only is this tedious, but it also puts your account at risk. Removing too many followers too quickly manually could trigger Twitter’s anti-spam systems and temporarily restrict your actions.
The Safer Way: Circleboom Twitter
When I realized that manual cleanup wasn’t realistic, I turned to Circleboom Twitter.

Circleboom is an official partner of X, which means it operates safely within Twitter’s rules and API limits. This is important, because many third-party tools claim to offer follower management but actually violate policies, which can get your account suspended. Circleboom, on the other hand, is fully compliant and trusted.
Here’s what Circleboom does to help you identify and remove ghost followers:
➡️ It scans and analyzes all your followers and followings with advanced filters.
➡️ It shows you which accounts are:
- Bots or fake profiles
- Inactive for a long period
- Overactive spammers
- Potentially harmful or suspicious
➡️ It provides detailed account insights such as tweet count, account creation date, followers/following numbers, and activity status.
➡️ Once you identify ghost followers, you can remove them with one click.
➡️ Circleboom automatically paces the removals to ensure your account stays safe.
➡️ If you want, you can also export your follower list into a CSV or Excel file for further analysis.
With Circleboom, I could finally see my entire audience clearly and remove ghost followers efficiently without worrying about risks.
Step-by-Step: How I Removed Ghost Followers with Circleboom
Here’s how the process worked for me:
Step #1: Go to the Circleboom Twitter website and log in with your credentials.
If you’re a new user, sign up—it’s quick and easy!

Step #2: On the left-side menu, click on the Followers section. A dropdown menu will appear. Select Fake/Bot Followers to see the full list of your followers.
If you want to remove specific accounts, such as inactive users, you can directly select these categories from the dropdown menu instead of viewing all followers.

Step #3: You will see a complete list of your fake/bot followers.

Use the Filter Options on the right-hand side to refine your list.
You can filter followers based on engagement levels, fake/spam accounts, inactivity, verification status, and more.

Step #4: Browse through your followers and check the boxes next to the users you want to remove.
You can also select multiple users at once. Once you have selected the users, click on the Remove Followers button at the top.
Alternatively, you can remove individual followers by clicking the red remove icon next to their name on the right side of the list.

A confirmation message will appear asking if you are sure you want to remove the selected followers. Click ''Remove Followers''.

Step #5: Since the removal action is processed via the Circleboom Remove Twitter/X Followers extension, you need to install it to complete the process.
Click on Download the Extension and install it from the Chrome Web Store.
Once installed, you can easily remove followers.

Step #6: After installing the extension, Circleboom will automatically add all your removal requests to the extension queue.
Click on the Start button to begin the removal process.
The extension will process your requests and remove the selected followers.

That's it! Your selected followers are now removed automatically.

⚠️ Important Warning: Once the removal process begins, do not close your Chrome browser or the Circleboom tab. The tool will automatically remove followers in the background, but if you close the tab or exit Chrome, the process will stop.
If you need a more detailed guide check this video ⬇️
The entire process took me less than an 5 minute—something that would have taken me days, if not weeks, to do manually.
After the Cleanup: What Changed
Cleaning out ghost followers with Circleboom completely transformed my Twitter experience:
✅ My engagement rate went up, because my audience was now made of real, active people.
✅ My analytics became accurate again, reflecting the true demographics and interests of my community.
✅ I received fewer spammy DMs and saw less irrelevant activity in my notifications.
✅ My timeline and interactions felt more authentic and valuable.
It was a refreshing change—I finally felt like I had full control over my account again.
How to Prevent Ghost Followers in the Future
Once you’ve cleaned up your account, you’ll want to keep ghost followers from piling up again. Here’s how:
- Avoid participating in low-quality giveaways or “follow-for-follow” chains.
- Never buy followers—almost all purchased followers are bots or inactive.
- Use Circleboom’s Account Quality score regularly to detect new ghost followers early.
- Keep your posting consistent so that real users are more likely to find and follow you.
- Use private Twitter lists to track accounts of interest without officially following them.
These habits will help you maintain a healthier, higher-quality audience.
Final Thoughts
Ghost followers might look harmless because they inflate your follower count, but in reality, they harm your engagement, distort your analytics, and hurt your credibility.
Removing them manually is slow, frustrating, and sometimes risky. That’s why I use Circleboom Twitter, an official partner of X. It analyzes my followers, detects bots, fakes, inactive accounts, and spammers, and lets me remove them safely with one click. Circleboom even automates the removal process within Twitter’s limits so I never risk suspension.
After using it, my account became cleaner, my engagement rate improved, and my community finally reflected the real audience I wanted.
If you want to get rid of ghost followers and build a healthier Twitter presence, Circleboom is the safest and most effective way to do it.