Millions of fake Twitter followers, often based on stolen Twitter account identities

Millions of fake Twitter followers, often based on stolen Twitter account identities

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/01/27/technology/social-media-bots.html
Not surprisingly, everything about social media is mostly fake.

“Devumi sells Twitter followers and retweets to celebrities, businesses and anyone who wants to appear more popular or exert influence online. Drawing on an estimated stock of at least 3.5 million automated accounts, each sold many times over, the company has provided customers with more than 200 million Twitter followers, a New York Times investigation found.
The accounts that most resemble real people, like Ms. Rychly, reveal a kind of large-scale social identity theft. At least 55,000 of the accounts use the names, profile pictures, hometowns and other personal details of real Twitter users, including minors, according to a Times data analysis.”

Of course, the NY Times hints at their own conflict of interest – people with many followers, real or fake, get endorsement deals. That means ad dollars flowing to people and groups other than the NY Times.

“High follower counts are also critical for so-called influencers, a budding market of amateur tastemakers and YouTube stars where advertisers now lavish billions of dollars a year on sponsorship deals. The more people influencers reach, the more money they make. According to data collected by Captiv8, a company that connects influencers to brands, an influencer with 100,000 followers might earn an average of $2,000 for a promotional tweet, while an influencer with a million followers might earn $20,000.”

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