About
The other direction from a follower list, and a more interesting one. Who an account follows is chosen deliberately, so the list describes what that account pays attention to. Paste usernames and read back a sample of each. Try bbcnews, reuters, or cnn.
How to use
One username per line. Results give the number the account follows, how many entries came back, and the sample of handles.
Chosen, not accumulated
An account's followers arrive on their own. The accounts it follows were each picked. That difference is why a following list is often the more revealing of the two: it shows the topics, competitors, and communities someone deliberately keeps in view. For research on a brand or a public figure, it is usually the list worth reading first.
Small lists are readable, large ones are not
The retrieved figure matters more here than elsewhere, because accounts vary so widely. A profile following forty others may come back essentially complete, and the sample can then be read as the whole. A profile following four thousand returns a slice with no guarantee of what it represents. Check that number before drawing any conclusion from the handles.
What the sequence is not
It is tempting to read the top of the list as the most recent additions or the closest connections. Neither holds. The order comes from how the data was returned and can change between two runs on the same account, so any analysis that depends on position is building on nothing.
FAQ
Is the order meaningful?
No. Do not read it as chronological or as any kind of ranking. The sequence reflects how the upstream returned the data and can differ between runs.
Can I see the complete list?
For accounts following a handful of others you may see most of it. For anyone following hundreds, expect a slice, and the retrieved figure tells you how large a slice.
Can I tell whether two accounts follow each other?
Only by checking both directions and only when both samples are complete enough to be conclusive. Two partial samples cannot prove absence.
Why would I use this rather than the follower list?
Because it answers a different question. Followers describe who found the account. Following describes what the account chose, and choice is the more informative of the two.
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