How to Prevent Strangers From Following You on X (Formerly Twitter)

Keep random people out of your Twitter feed

What to Know

  • To lock your account: Select Settings > Privacy and Safety. Toggle on Protect your Tweets > Done.
  • Remove strangers: On the website, select Profile > Followers > the three-dot menu next to the follower and select Remove this follower.
  • Block an account: Select the down arrow or the three dots at the top of a post. Select Block. Confirm by selecting Block again.

This article explains how to prevent strangers from following you on X (formerly Twitter) by setting your account to private rather than public. It includes information on removing existing followers or blocking a follower, along with reasons why strangers follow you.

How to Prevent Strangers From Following You on X

When you sign up for X, your account is public by default; anyone can follow you, view your feed, and interact with you. To prevent strangers from following you, set your account to private. That way, you receive a request when new people want to follow you, and you can approve or deny the request. Here's how to set your account to private.

  1. Select the Settings (gear) icon.

  2. Select Privacy and Safety.

  3. Toggle on Protect your Tweets.

  4. Select Done.

    Twitter privacy settings
  5. Your posts will appear only to people who follow you, and if anyone wants to follow you, you have to approve them.

    To approve or deny follower requests, go your profile. Select Followers > Pending follower requests to view the people who have requested to follow you. Select Accept or Decline.

How to Remove a Follower

If you already have a stranger who follows you, your first course of action is removing the follower, which you can do from the web. Here's how.

  1. On the web version, click Profile.

    The "Profile" link on Twitter for the web
  2. Click Followers.

    The Followers link on Twitter
  3. Click the three-dot menu next to the follower you want to remove.

    The three-dot menu by a Twitter follower
  4. Select Remove this follower.

    The "Remove this follower" command on Twitter for web
  5. Followers you remove this way won't receive a notification that you've done so, but they can still see your feed if they go to your profile.

How to Block a Follower

Removing a follower doesn't stop them from refollowing you later if you set your account to public. In this case, you need to take stronger measures. If a stranger (or someone you know) is following you on X and you want to block them:

  1. Select the down arrow icon located at the top of a post from the account you wish to block.

  2. Select Block.

    blocked account on Twitter
  3. Select Block again to confirm. Now the blocked account can't follow you or see your feed.

Use a service such as StatusPeople's Fake Follower Check to see what percentage of your followers are fake, real, or inactive.

Why Are Strangers Following You?

There are many reasons for someone you don't know to follow you on X. They may admire and connect with your wit, point of view, and humor, or they may have you confused with someone else.

Sometimes a random person might follow you in order to get a follow in return. This is a common practice for people who want to build up their followers. More followers means more visibility, whether you just want attention or genuinely have something to promote.

Not all random people have innocuous reasons for following you. Hackers and internet criminals may send out malicious bots to follow you. Malicious bots spread links to malware. These links are often disguised as shortened links so that the dangerous link is obscured from view.

Before you click on a random short link online, use a link expansion service to inspect it so you can decide whether its destination is somewhere you really want to go.

Random followers might also be spammers, who use every possible avenue, including feeds, to spread their messages. Spammers follow a massive number of accounts hoping for follow-backs, increasing their audience.

If you report a post as spam, X blocks the user from following you or replying to you but doesn't automatically suspend the account.

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