Twitter Followers Vanish Amid Inquiries Into Fake Accounts

[DonViejo]

Source: The New York Times




Federal and state authorities are investigating the sellers of artificial followers and other fraudulent social media engagement.

By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE, GABRIEL J.X. DANCE and RICH HARRIS JAN. 31, 2018

More than a million followers have disappeared from the accounts of dozens of prominent Twitter users in recent days as the company faces growing criticism over the proliferation of fake accounts and scrutiny from federal and state inquiries into the shadowy firms that sell fake followers.

The people losing followers include an array of entertainers, entrepreneurs, athletes and media figures, many of whom bought Twitter followers or artificial engagement from a company called Devumi. Its business practices were detailed in a New York Times article on Saturday describing a vast trade in fake followers and fraudulent engagement on Twitter and other social media sites, often using personal information taken from real users. Twitter said on Saturday that it would take action against Devumi’s practices. A Twitter spokeswoman on Tuesday declined to comment about whether the company was purging fake accounts.

The singer Clay Aiken, the actor John Leguizamo and the reality TV star Lisa Rinna have each lost a substantial number of followers, according to a review of their accounts. So has Martha Lane Fox, a British businesswoman and Twitter board member. Other well-known users have taken to Twitter in recent days to complain of lost followers, suggesting that a broad swath of people may be affected, not just Devumi customers.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/01/31/technology/100000005710760.app.html

[EarthFirst]

1. Is it the ego or bottom line thats bruised here?

[Javaman]

11. both.

ego's aside, i was listening to a podcast regarding just this. One of the speakers made an interesting point, he stated that many people in the entertainment industry base their value of getting future roles on the number of twitter followers. the more followers the better chance you have landing that role. The filmmakers believe that stars with a higher number will garner higher box office receipts.

very weird way to do business rather than having a good quality movie with a good quality script.

[MicaelS]

12. Is roll a new slang word...

Or did you mean "role"?

[Javaman]

13. duh, auto-correct strikes again. Thanks, I'll fix. nt

[PunkinPi]

2. If true, and if Twitter Audit is accurate...

that could mean trump would lose 20+ million "followers". May drive him nuts...

[lagomorph777]

3. That would be hilarious if I understood Twitter.

I'm sure.

[PunkinPi]

7. iow, half the followers he has are fake and could therefore be removed. nt

[lagomorph777]

9. Even his "real" followers on TV seem pretty fake to me,

so that comes as no surprise.

[Qutzupalotl]

4. Trump down to 47.2M followers now.

Wasn’t he over 50M recently?

[Blue_Tires]

8. The problem is every time he loses followers

the Russian troll farms can have another few million accounts ready to activate in a week or two

[lagomorph777]

10. TwitCoin mining

[Hugin]

5. Gasp! You mean, it's possible...

Diamond & Silk aren't the "Social Media Stars" Faux & Frauds makes them out to be? But, they are still Trump Voters.

Really?

[procon]

6. And where is the Republican committee investigating the Russian interference

into our political affairs, our major communication systems, our national security, and tampering with the social networking businesses involved?