4 ms·

Half of Joe Biden's Twitter Followers Are Fake, Audit Reveals

16 points by itbeho 4y ago

TameAntelope 4y ago
This seems needlessly political. According to the article, 70% of Elon Musk's followers are fake, based on the same measurements.
tamaharbor 4y ago
- awelfkj34t 4y ago
- bediger4000 4y ago
  50 states' election procedures are not Twitter. Stop spreading lies.
version_five 4y ago
For context, an analysis estimated 70% of Elon Musk's followers are fake [0]. It suggests the following reasons: > Very large accounts tend to have more fake/spam followers than others > Accounts that receive great deals of press coverage and public interest (like ex-President Trump and Mr. Musk) tend to attract more fake/spam followers than others > Accounts that Twitter recommends to new users (which often includes @ElonMusk) tend to get more fake/spam followers No doubt this is also true for Biden. Seems to me that Musk et al should be less concerned about overall percentage of fake accounts than of these big numbers encountered on population accounts. [0] https://sparktoro.com/blog/sparktoro-followerwonk-joint-twitter-analysis-19-42-of-active-accounts-are-fake-or-spam/ https://sparktoro.com/blog/sparktoro-followerwonk-joint-twit...
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
twofornone 4y ago
>Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who is currently trying to buy Twitter, has expressed concerns about the number of fake accounts and a potential crack down could see users such as Biden lose a huge number of followers. What if Musk was simply on a narcissistic vendetta and never actually intended to go through with the purchase, instead merely aiming expose the hot air on which twitter was running? >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 How to mislead without lying: fake followers implicitly sanctioned by twitter are not necessarily spam accounts. This could easily be typical corporate speak, deliberately conflating fake follower numbers with spam accounts to suggest that twitter is "working on a solution" as opposed to acknowledging that twitter manipulates followers. In any case I would imagine that the current board is less interested in the financial health of the company than they are in its use as an unprecedented political tool. Disinformation warnings are an authoritarian's wet dream.
- ttyprintk 4y ago
  We’re five years out from this prediction: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13726214 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13726214 I don’t see a qualitative difference between Twitter with automated accounts and Twitter with actions that dissuade them.
- vehementi 4y ago
  For $1B, vendetta me more daddy
trompetenaccoun 4y ago
Almost like Twitter has a massive problem with fake accounts. Or rather they don't seem to have a problem with it, people who care about truth have.
awelfkj34t 4y ago
- fnordpiglet 4y ago
  I think you forgot your meds.
  - ss108 4y ago
    Don't give people like that the excuse of mental illness. They are morally responsible for choosing to consume and believe that crap.
    - bediger4000 4y ago
      Unless they're paid propagandists. I guess they're still morally responsible, but they're even more reprehensible since they don't believe. I bet the account in question is a paid propagandist.
    - fnordpiglet 4y ago
      Too true, and it’s an insult to those who indeed suffer from a mental illness. (Myself included!)
      - ss108 4y ago
        Indeed
- bediger4000 4y ago
  Haven't you heard? Q isn't real, and Q drops are just meaningless gibberish.
awelfkj34t 4y ago
- bediger4000 4y ago
  Wow, I thought Russian bots (or at least bot herders working for Russia) got kicked off the internet when the Ukrainian war of aggression and genocide started.
rvz 4y ago
And? We already know Twitter is infested with automated brainless parrots, i.e bot accounts plaguing the platform for years. This is why the way to solve it is to do what YouTube and Facebook has done and KYC everyone for that verified checkmark. As for those those bot accounts, they need to be on a leash tied to a KYC'd account so we know who it is from. Either way, I do not care what happens since the platform is close to impossible for any intelligent conversation anyway. But someone has got to clean it up, Prag admitted he could not do it and now Elon wants to clean up the bot accounts. We'll see what happens.

16 points by itbeho 4y ago

This seems needlessly political. According to the article, 70% of Elon Musk's followers are fake, based on the same measurements.

tamaharbor 4y ago

awelfkj34t 4y ago
bediger4000 4y ago
50 states' election procedures are not Twitter. Stop spreading lies.

version_five 4y ago

For context, an analysis estimated 70% of Elon Musk's followers are fake [0]. It suggests the following reasons: > Very large accounts tend to have more fake/spam followers than others > Accounts that receive great deals of press coverage and public interest (like ex-President Trump and Mr. Musk) tend to attract more fake/spam followers than others > Accounts that Twitter recommends to new users (which often includes @ElonMusk) tend to get more fake/spam followers No doubt this is also true for Biden. Seems to me that Musk et al should be less concerned about overall percentage of fake accounts than of these big numbers encountered on population accounts. [0] https://sparktoro.com/blog/sparktoro-followerwonk-joint-twitter-analysis-19-42-of-active-accounts-are-fake-or-spam/ https://sparktoro.com/blog/sparktoro-followerwonk-joint-twit...

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

twofornone 4y ago

>Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who is currently trying to buy Twitter, has expressed concerns about the number of fake accounts and a potential crack down could see users such as Biden lose a huge number of followers. What if Musk was simply on a narcissistic vendetta and never actually intended to go through with the purchase, instead merely aiming expose the hot air on which twitter was running? >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 How to mislead without lying: fake followers implicitly sanctioned by twitter are not necessarily spam accounts. This could easily be typical corporate speak, deliberately conflating fake follower numbers with spam accounts to suggest that twitter is "working on a solution" as opposed to acknowledging that twitter manipulates followers. In any case I would imagine that the current board is less interested in the financial health of the company than they are in its use as an unprecedented political tool. Disinformation warnings are an authoritarian's wet dream.

ttyprintk 4y ago
We’re five years out from this prediction: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13726214 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13726214 I don’t see a qualitative difference between Twitter with automated accounts and Twitter with actions that dissuade them.
vehementi 4y ago
For $1B, vendetta me more daddy

trompetenaccoun 4y ago

Almost like Twitter has a massive problem with fake accounts. Or rather they don't seem to have a problem with it, people who care about truth have.

awelfkj34t 4y ago

fnordpiglet 4y ago
I think you forgot your meds.
- ss108 4y ago
  Don't give people like that the excuse of mental illness. They are morally responsible for choosing to consume and believe that crap.
  - bediger4000 4y ago
    Unless they're paid propagandists. I guess they're still morally responsible, but they're even more reprehensible since they don't believe. I bet the account in question is a paid propagandist.
  - fnordpiglet 4y ago
    Too true, and it’s an insult to those who indeed suffer from a mental illness. (Myself included!)
    - ss108 4y ago
      Indeed
bediger4000 4y ago
Haven't you heard? Q isn't real, and Q drops are just meaningless gibberish.

awelfkj34t 4y ago

bediger4000 4y ago
Wow, I thought Russian bots (or at least bot herders working for Russia) got kicked off the internet when the Ukrainian war of aggression and genocide started.

rvz 4y ago

And? We already know Twitter is infested with automated brainless parrots, i.e bot accounts plaguing the platform for years. This is why the way to solve it is to do what YouTube and Facebook has done and KYC everyone for that verified checkmark. As for those those bot accounts, they need to be on a leash tied to a KYC'd account so we know who it is from. Either way, I do not care what happens since the platform is close to impossible for any intelligent conversation anyway. But someone has got to clean it up, Prag admitted he could not do it and now Elon wants to clean up the bot accounts. We'll see what happens.