Nearly Half of Donald Trump's Twitter Followers are Fake Accounts and Bots

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

Anyone can amass an exorbitant number of Twitter followers. You don't even have to be famous. All you have to do is pay for them. The comedian Joe Mande currently has a healthy 1.01 million followers, but his bio contains a caveat: "twitter is trash, facebook's the devil, i bought a million followers for like $400 none of this **** matters antarctica is melting."

Mande even explained the stunt last November in The New Yorker. "The simplest way to tell who’s winning the Twitter game is by counting followers," he wrote.

"The biggest celebrity accounts—Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga—seem to have millions of followers. But in 2012 I learned that only a portion of those are real humans; some are 'bots,' artificially created to boost an account’s popularity. Immediately, I knew that I had found my calling."

Because Donald Trump is the president of the United States and the most famous person on the planet, one wouldn't think he would need to employ a bot to boost his Twitter following. It appears, however, he might have done just that.

As screenwriter John Niven pointed out Tuesday morning, Trump's Twitter account saw an unusual spike in followers over the weekend, many of which appear to have been created artificially.

Trump currently has 31 million followers and, sure enough, if you browse through them you will find an unusual number of tweet-less, picture-less accounts that joined the service in May 2017. If you're still curious, you can enter Trump's handle, @realDonaldTrump, into Twitter Audit, a service that assesses the authenticity of one's followers, and find that only 51 percent of Trump's are real.

This isn't the first time someone has pointed out that a good portion of Trump's Twitter following is fake, but what's interesting is that its fakeness seems to be increasing. In January, journalist Yashar Ali ran an audit on Trump's Twitter account and found that 68 percent of his then-20 million followers were real. Now he's at 30 million followers, but only 51 percent are real, which means of 10 million followers Trump has gained since January, about 8.3 million are fake.

Continued: http://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump...rs-fake-617873

[Agamemnon]

He's getting what he pays for I guess. When you've got a micro-penis this stuff probably seems super important.

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

Originally Posted by Agamemnon

He's getting what he pays for I guess. When you've got a micro-penis this stuff probably seems super important.

It's THE most important thing in the world for Trumplethinskin.

Courting admirers and making enemies lists containing the names of those who refuse to bow and scrape are the only real priorities for the Orange Man-Baby.

All that presidenting stuff is just an afterthought.

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

This won't be the first time Trump has relied on paid “supporters” to make him look popular.



WARSAW, Poland — President Donald Trump opens his two-nation European visit with what he expects to be a short but warm stop in Poland before he encounters what could be a frostier reception and thornier issues at an international summit in Germany. Trump’s sit-down with Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s first launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile threaten to put Trump’s skills as a negotiator to the test.

...

Polish media reports say the government promised the White House cheering crowds as part of its invitation. Ruling party lawmakers and pro-government activists plan to bus in groups of people for Trump’s speech. The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment on the reports.

www.washingtonpost.com/…

This won't be the first time Trump has relied on paid “supporters” to make him look popular. You may remember back in 2015, on the day he announced his candidacy for president, he hired people to cheer and wave signs for him in Trump Tower. Talk about fake news.

According to a Pew Poll last week, only 23% of Poles have confidence in Trump as a World Leader. www.pewglobal.org/...

Sad!

https://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/...etail=facebook

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

Puts a serious damper on their ability to "catapult the propaganda."

Conservatives Melt Down as Twitter Annihilates Fake Accounts

Twitter quietly purged thousands of bots overnight—cutting several prominent pundits’ follower counts down to size.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018...-fake-accounts

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

Watch Ali Velshi Link Sean Hannity's Twitter Account to Russian Troll Farm Propaganda

The Fox News host's embarrassing gaffe was pulled into clear focus.



https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-po...arm-propaganda

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

Conservatives say they've lost thousands of followers on Twitter

Conservative Twitter users are speaking out about a loss in followers after Twitter reportedly suspended thousands of accounts.

Twitter has yet to announce the purge, but there is speculation that the action was part of the social media giant's effort to get rid of suspected Russian bots.

Conservatives say they have been targeted in the purge, Gizmodo reported.

The really funny part:

#TwitterLockOut I lost 2K followers last night- 1st and 2nd amendment in jeopardy! Follow @GrrrGraphics and let's stay connected also @grrrgraphics on @getongab and #Steemit.com https://t.co/Oj98iIxEAZ pic.twitter.com/Ya7oOA9ZJ3
— BenGarrison Cartoons (@GrrrGraphics) February 21, 2018

http://thehill.com/policy/technology...ers-on-twitter

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

Facebook Suspends Political Research Firm Linked To Trump For Violating User Privacy

The group reportedly obtained personal information from 50 million users

Facebook has suspended a political research and campaign firm linked to President Donald Trump and Steve Bannon for violating policies protecting users’ privacy, the company said Friday.

Strategic Communication Laboratories and the company’s political data analytics firm, Cambridge Analytica, were barred from the social media platform because the operation violated company policies by obtaining personal data from its customers, Facebook said. The data was initially obtained by the developer of an app that promised to provide users with “personality predictions.”

To create those predictions, Cambridge Analytica harvested personal information from the Facebook profiles of more than 50 million users, according to a joint investigation by The New York Times and The Observer of London published Saturday morning.

Trump’s presidential campaign paid millions of dollars to Cambridge Analytica, which was funded by Trump’s billionaire donor Robert Mercer. Bannon once served on its board. The company is now seeking U.S. government contracts, The Washington Post has reported.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry...b0c33361b08eb0

[BroncoBeavis]

77.8% of the posts in this thread are fake accounts and bots.

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

Originally Posted by BroncoBeavis

77.8% of the posts in this thread are fake accounts and bots.

Cool story, bro.

[Doggcow]

Every twitter account*

[RonMexico]

Originally Posted by BroncoBeavis

77.8% of the posts in this thread are fake accounts and bots.

Home run

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

Originally Posted by moRon

Home run

^

A quarter-wit who uses "bot" and "spambot" as derisive terms carrying water for a POTUS half of whose Twitter followers are (wait for it) bots and fake profiles.

You can't make this **** up.

[footstepsfrom#27]

I can't imagine giving two ****s about how many Twitter followers one has...what a useless bunch of idiots we've become.

No doubt there are some Rump bots in here too though.

[RonMexico]

Originally Posted by L.A. BRONCOS FAN

^

A quarter-wit who uses "bot" and "spambot" as derisive terms carrying water for a POTUS half of whose Twitter followers are (wait for it) bots and fake profiles.

You can't make this **** up.

You are the most obvious enlisted troll I have ever seen.

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

Originally Posted by moRon

You are the most obvious enlisted troll I have ever seen.

Maybe you can start a second thread to bring your "paid DNC operative" case to the mods.

It would be entertaining to watch you get embarrassed again when your claims are disconfirmed and laughed at.

[rmsanger]

I don’t twitter never have never will.

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

"Half" appears to have been a conservative estimate.

Fake president, fake followers...

61% of Trump's Twitter Followers are Fake

A strong majority of President Donald Trump’s millions of Twitter followers were spam, bots, propaganda or simply inactive accounts, far more than many other prominent politicians like Vice President Mike Pence and even Trump’s foes like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, according to a new analysis released by an online marketing company Tuesday.

SparkToro, created by Moz co-founder Rand Fishkin, conducted an analysis of all of Trump’s 54.7 million followers on Twitter and said 61 percent of the president’s followers are likely not real.

The figure is staggering, especially from an account that Trump has credited with helping him reach his supporters and win the presidency.

https://www.newsweek.com/trump-twitt...linton-1160344

[Rohirrim]

Everything about Trump is fake. He's a con-artist. He's was trained from birth to be a con-artist. He's been a con-artist and pathological liar his entire life. Not to mention the narcissistic personality disorder.

[GoneFishin']

They all do it. Even your hero politician, whomever that may be.

Obama has higher percentage of fake Twitter followers than Clinton, Trump

Former President Barack Obama lost a greater number and larger portion of his Twitter followers than President Trump and Hillary Clinton following the technology company's purge of fake accounts.

Obama dropped from 103.6 million followers to 101 million as of mid-Friday, a day after bogus and spam accounts were deleted. The 2.6 million drop cut out 2.5 percent of his followers.

Trump went from 53.4 million to 53.1 million. The 300,000 drop amounts to 0.6 percent of his Thursday following before the purge.

[ShaneFalco]

Originally Posted by BroncoBeavis

77.8% of the posts in this thread are fake accounts and bots.

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

Originally Posted by GoneFishin'

Obama has higher percentage of fake Twitter followers than Clinton, Trump

Not according to this study:

Out of Obama’s 103 million followers, 40.9 percent were not real, while 43.8 percent of Clinton’s 23.5 million followers were also deemed bots, spam, propaganda or inactive. The analysis also showed 41.5 percent of Pence’s 6.65 million followers were likely fake, as were 41 percent of former Vice President Al Gore’s, 33.7 percent of Senator Elizabeth Warren’s and 50 percent of California Governor Jerry Brown's.

https://www.newsweek.com/trump-twitt...linton-1160344

[ShaneFalco]

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

^

Originally Posted by L.A. BRONCOS FAN

A quarter-wit who uses "bot" and "spambot" as derisive terms carrying water for a POTUS 61% of whose Twitter followers are (wait for it) bots and fake profiles.

You can't make this **** up.

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

Even the firm that hired actors to cheer Trump’s campaign launch had to wait to be paid

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.a70ad617f69d