Twitter has decided to tackle social media fraud whereby users buy fake followers, often automated “bots”, to create the appearance of influence and enhance their careers.
This will lead to the company removing hundreds of millions of fake accounts from users’ followers. This is expected to be part of a campaign to restore trust in the microblogging site.
After an investigation in January, it was discovered that thousands of so-called followers of prominent figures including Baroness Lane-Fox of Soho, co-founder of Lastminute.com, were fakes. They were said to have been bought from Devumi, an American company, for about a penny each.
This has led to brands and marketing companies putting pressure on Twitter and other social media sites such as Instagram to ensure that influencers have the audiences they claim. More ominously, fake accounts have also been deployed by Russia to mimic the accounts of westerners and spread misinformation on Twitter with a view to destabilising western countries.
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