Of course they should NOT remove it! Like facebook, myspace, and real life, follower counts provide a huge service.
The number of followers is a really strong objective measure of an account's (or a person's) legitimacy.
How do you know the guy that added you on facebook isn't a spam bot? If he has 600 friends (or whatever is average in your social group), then he's probably legit. If he has 0 friends, he's probably not.
How do you know if the guy that's presenting you a business proposal is trustworthy? Based on the number of references or mutual friends or the breadth of his past experience (higher = better).
How do you know that THE REAL SHAQ is actually the real Shaq? Because 650,000 people have already verified it for you.
My point is that external opinions of people (or representations of people) are really important. The easiest way to verify this is to look at sheer numbers - "Tom has 20,000 followers. Mike has 1,000 followers. Therefore, I am risking less by following Tom" is sound logic. People don't have time to research every Twitter account they want to follow. Therefore, Follower Count is a really great way to convey legitimacy quickly.
How do you know that THE REAL SHAQ is actually the real Shaq? Because 650,000 people have already verified it for you.
Whilst I agree with you, it should be noted most people thought the CNNbrk account was CNN until yesterday (and only now it actually is). That's 900,000+ people who had verified it.
The number of followers is a really strong objective measure of an account's (or a person's) legitimacy.
How do you know the guy that added you on facebook isn't a spam bot? If he has 600 friends (or whatever is average in your social group), then he's probably legit. If he has 0 friends, he's probably not.
How do you know if the guy that's presenting you a business proposal is trustworthy? Based on the number of references or mutual friends or the breadth of his past experience (higher = better).
How do you know that THE REAL SHAQ is actually the real Shaq? Because 650,000 people have already verified it for you.
My point is that external opinions of people (or representations of people) are really important. The easiest way to verify this is to look at sheer numbers - "Tom has 20,000 followers. Mike has 1,000 followers. Therefore, I am risking less by following Tom" is sound logic. People don't have time to research every Twitter account they want to follow. Therefore, Follower Count is a really great way to convey legitimacy quickly.