Slashdot Mirror
Fake Twitter Followers Becomes Multimillion Dollar Business
RougeFemme writes "There are more than two dozen companies that sell fake Twitter accounts. Those that sell them claim to make up to one million dollars per week. Two Italian security researchers estimate that there are as many as 20 million fake Twitter follower accounts. It's very difficult to tell the different between fake and real Twitter accounts saying, 'Some fake accounts look even better than real accounts do.'"
Irrelevant things are not relevant! Why was/is so much stock placed on the number of "followers" a person has? It seems as though this places unwarranted weight/emphasis on opinions and people that shouldn't really have that. (Read this as Ms. Jenny McCarthy ranting about vaccinations being taken as relevant to a real discussion on health care.)
Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well-preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally wo
Also on the idea that sometimes the fakes look better than the real ones. Completely believable. There's a lot of accounts out there that are only created as placeholders. I have a few myself that I created for different domain names I own. Better to create the account and not use it than have the name not available if you decide to use it. It costs nothing to do this, so it makes sense to just create a few accounts for interesting names that you might want to use in the future.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
Twitter followers, like Facebook friends and similar sorts of social media, fool people into thinking that something is popular. A lot of the people who are fooled into thinking that something is popular are also gullible enough to think that because something is popular it must be good, and thus start buying the product / voting for the candidate / publicly praising the organization.
The people who hire companies like this see the world as a game of hype, illusion, and fakery with the goal of having the next "Gagnam Style".
I am officially gone from
There's a lot of accounts out there that are only created as placeholders. I have a few myself that I created for different domain names I own.
And there lies the truth about Twitter: For the most part, Twitter is now simply an extension of commercial branding, as in "Nothing To See" and "Nothing Of Value Was Lost"... I mean, if you're really interested in reading Justin Bieber's latest drama in 140 chars... Twitter is now (and has been for some time) simply an extension of the corporate promotion game.
As such, does it really matter how many Twitter Twaddle Accounts are fake? Most people who follow Twitter Twaddle are "fake" in more ways than one.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
It is NOT about spam. It is about purchasing "legitimacy" quickly."
If paying people to follow you made you legitimate, then Scientology would be a real religion!
Some (MANY!) people are more concerned with social acceptance than self-determination.
Politicians and news media use this to "lead" them by creating the illusion that other people are thinking or doing what the "leaders" want them to think or do, with the implied threat of ostracization and loss of social-network support if they fail to conform.
The progressive movement as a whole, political factions on most parts of the political map, ethnic groups and other "communities", and religions (mainstream and "cult") are particularly noted for this.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way