Politics & Government

Fake Twitter Followers For Sale?

The Obama and Romney campaigns are just two of many social media accounts which have had follow numbers boosted by fake accounts.

How accurate are Twitter follower numbers?USA Today is reporting that President Barrack Obama doesn't have as many "followers" as it might seem and Mitt Romney made headlines in July for an unusal jump in followers over one weekend.

According to a recent New York Times report, the practice of purchasing fake Twitter followers has become so widespread that StatusPeople, a social media management company in London, recently released a Web tool called the Fake Follower Check which will root out fake followers.

Both Presidential campaigns have denied buying followers, but the @BarackObama account shows 28 percent of its 18.9 million followers to be fake, while the @MittRomney account shows 22 percent of its 920,118 are fake.

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How do you feel about "fake followers?" Does the idea of a candidate purchasing social media followers sway your vote in any way?


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