The architecture of information:
According to a report on The Verge, Twitter is redesigning its iOS apps to de-emphasize follower counts. Per the story, this is just one item of metadata being de-emphasized, ostensibly to raise the profile of tweet content by comparison.
Follower count on Twitter serves as a proxy for credibility. An account with more followers has more influence on the network. Twitter users are therefore subtly incentivized to gain more users, and this may influence the type of content they post.
So I can understand why Twitter would want to de-emphasize this measure. That said, the screenshot shared in The Verge’s article is very subtle. I wonder if it’s subtle enough? (You don’t want to lose the follower number altogether.)