Twitter recently started suspending accounts which bulk unfollow those who don't follow back for Terms of Service Violation (see: http://groups.google.com/group/twitter-development-talk/browse_thread/thread/1aeb1f40ff665f78/955da80afd36ca4d?lnk=gst&q=follower+churn#955da80afd36ca4d). This policy has it's supporters and detractors. What it does not yet have is specific guidance describing the specific limitations on bulk unfollowing which, when not done for "following churn", has it's legitimate purposes.
Heretofore several utility applications provided a bulk unfollow function to end users (most commonly as a method of recruiting followers by following people in the hope they'd follow back and then unfollowing those who didn't) and some "real" twitter users (ie, not spammers) used this method to building their followers. As there are still bona fide rreasons for bulk unfollowing friends, it would be extremely helpulf if Twitter can provide more clear guidance about what type of bulk unfollowing exactly will flag an account for suspension? For example, does unfollowing several hundred friends whether they are following an account or not constitute the type of bulk unfollowing that will get an account suspended? Popular blogger Robert Scoble just had a script unfollow ALL his friends (http://scobleizer.com/ 2009/08/05/you-are-so-unfollowed/) successfully, yet a friend of mine unfollowed all his friends and his account was suspended later that same day. And another friend used a third party unfollow script to get her friends number below the 2,000 limit and her account was suspended. What are the specific rules regarding the type, quantity, and timing of bulk unfollowing that will result in account suspension? It's very difficult to manage twitter accounts with the specter of seemingly arbitrary account suspensions looming without having more specific guidance on how TOS are interpreted.
