SparkToro defines fake followers as "accounts that are unreachable and will not see the account's tweets (either because they're spam, bots, propaganda, etc. or because they're no longer active on Twitter)."
The software company's tool also found that Biden's account has more fake followers than most.
The discovery comes as the world's richest man, Elon Musk, has made a staggering offer to buy Twitter -- though that deal is now on hold until he can get a straight answer from the current CEO, Parag Agrawal, as to just how many accounts on the platform are bots and phonies.
Musk noted earlier this week that his $44 billion offer to buy the social media company would not move forward until the fake accounts were dealt with, as he has said that his offer was based on the company's public claim that only about 5 percent of users were bot accounts.
The Tesla and SpaceX founder and CEO has claimed that at least 20 percent of Twitter's accounts are "fake/spam accounts," a figure that was "4 times what Twitter claims, [and] could be *much* higher."
"My offer was based on Twitter's SEC filings being accurate," Musk wrote. "Yesterday, Twitter's CEO publicly refused to show proof of <5%. This deal cannot move forward until he does."
While it isn't clear how Musk arrived at the 20 percent figure and he and Agrawal exchanged a series of tweets about the issue of fake accounts on Monday, what is clear is that a) Twitter execs have lied in public filings regarding the number of phony accounts; b) Musk suspected all along they were lying; and c) he is now exposing the platform's massive fakery along with Biden's presidency.
"We suspend over half a million spam accounts every day, usually before any of you even see them on Twitter. We also lock millions of accounts each week that we suspect may be spam, if they can't pass human verification challenges (captchas, phone verification, etc)," Agrawal wrote on his platform this week.
He has also said the company estimated "every quarter" that less than five percent of monetizable daily active users (mDAU) were not real persons but bots.
And yet, anyone who spends any time at all on the platform can see that most responses to notable figures are obvious bot accounts (short bios, often with emojis or characters instead of photos of real people, with no blue check mark and a handful of followers -- or none at all).
Following a 13-tweet threat from Agrawal, Musk responded with a 'poop' emoji and wrote: "So how do advertisers know what they're getting for their money? This is fundamental to the financial health of Twitter."
A fake president who has fake followers on an influential social media platform that is rife with fake accounts. The American experiment in self-government is failing not because the system our founders devised and bequeathed us is inferior, it's because those we have entrusted it to are.
Sources include:
Twitter’s “tricky” timing problem: Lawsuit reveals back channel with CDC to coordinate censorship
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