Mitt Romney Campaign Busted Buying Hundreds of Thousands of Facebook LIKES and Twitter Followers

[thecentristword]

Below is an excerpt of our post. Please check out the actual post for additional text and charts -> http://thecentristword.wordpress.com/2012/08/05/mitt-romney-starts-buying-hundreds-of-thousands-of-facebook-likes-and-twitter-followers/

Twitter - The Mitt Romney became extremely popular on Twitter on the 20th of July. How? They began buying twitter followers. In fact, his account started adding followers at a rate of 25 per second.

Before the 20th of July, Romney’s typical average of 3,ooo-4,000 per day increased some twenty fold to over 62,000 in a single day, according to TwitterCounter.com. But the new followers are highly suspect. From “empty” accounts to pornbots, spambots, Justin Beiber-related accounts, Obama supporters and foreign accounts, the followers tell a puzzling tale, suggesting spam automation, purchased traffic or perhaps even sabotage.

Facebook - Buying Facebook Likes while bragging about how many Facebook Likes you have - sad

The same thing happened at the same time. As you can see in the chart above, Mitt had seen a steady rise in the number of Facebook likes, then, magically on August 1st a spike. At the same time, Romney set the lofty goal of reaching 3 million Facebook likes. Propaganda for the digital age - purchased popularity.

Media Establishment Falling "Hook-Line-and-Sinker" for Social Media Manipulation - The "Twitter Political Index,'' was launched last Wednesday by Twitter. It claims to track enthusiasm levels for President Obama and his Republican rival Mitt Romney based on an average of 2 million tweets a week that mention the candidates.

[tanyev]

1. Hey, I got a message from Facebook on July 30th that someone tried to log into my account.

I think it was somewhere in Indiana. Coinkydink?

Your Facebook account was recently logged into from a computer, mobile device or other
location you've never used before. For your protection, we've temporarily locked your
account until you can review this activity and make sure no one is using your account
without your permission.

Did you log into Facebook from a new device or an unusual location?

- If this was not you, please log into Facebook from your computer and follow the
instructions provided to help you control your account information.

- If this was you, there's no need to worry. Simply log into Facebook again to get back
into your account.

Thanks,
Facebook Security Team

[catbyte]

2. Google that, tanyev. I think it have been a phishing expedition

I got something similiar except the location was somewhere in France. I am a naturally suspicious person and googled it and they said not to click on the link because facebook doesn't monitor logins. I went into facebook directly and changed password just to be safe.

The whole buying "likes" is SO pathetic.

[tanyev]

6. Interesting. They're willing to send me an email every time someone on my Friends list sneezes,

but they don't monitor logins?

[cleduc]

3. Pretty sad

when a candidate has to pay people to "like" him

Beyond the pathetic act, it kind of underscores the whole money in politics problem

[Scuba]

9. Well said, and welcome to DU.

[thecentristword]

12. and some newspapers (USA Today) are including social media METRICS

beyond worthless - yet another way to buy influence

[surrealAmerican]

4. Why would twitter even come out with ...

... a "Political Index"?
They know full well the numbers are not representative of anything meaningful.

[thecentristword]

8. absolutely - worse than 'non-scientific poll'

But USA Today was quick to jump on it - will publish it every day from now until the election.

[global1]

5. Really - How Does One Actually Buy Facebook Likes and Twitter Followers?......

I'm curious as to how this is done. Who is the seller? How much it cost per "like" or "follower".

[thecentristword]

7. Just google it- the companies that offer the service actually delivers the followers

It is a common practice for new sites - lend credibility during the initial stages.

They are real and it actually works - here are some examples.

http://intertwitter.com/
http://www.fanmenow.com/
http://buytwitterfollow.com/

[MarkTurner]

10. Not just fake Facebook accounts, REAL ones, too!

Hi folks,

I was startled to discover yesterday that I'd unwittingly become a fan of Mitt Romney's Facebook page when in fact I support Obama. A look at my Facebook account's activity log had no entry for when this occurred, even though it showed every other page I've "liked" going back the year I checked.

A check of Facebook's help and security forums shows that I'm not the only victim. Some people report this happening on August 5th: about the same time the Centrist found the fake account info.

I strongly suspect someone is gaming Facebook's system to register phony likes, and I'd like to hear from anyone else who has had this happen to them. You can visit my blog at markturner.net or find me on Facebook under fb.com/jmarkturner

Thanks!

Regards,
Mark Turner
Raleigh

[thecentristword]

11. Anyone else - suddenly LIKED Mitt Romney on Facebook without knowing it in the last couple days?

[vinothini999]

14. Spam deleted by NRaleighLiberal (MIR Team)