The Newt Gingrich campaign continued to vigorously deny a report that it paid outside firms to artificially inflate the number of Gingrich’s Twitter followers, comparing the GOP presidential candidate’s Twitter presence to Shaquille O’Neil’s.
In a press release, Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond called any such accusations “a lie, a smear and unsubstantiated.” (RELATED: Are Newt’s Twitter followers real? Social media analysts disagree)
“Twitter’s addition of @newtgingrich to the Suggested User List is responsible for a large, but indeterminable amount of followers,” Hammond wrote. “Twitter users follow Newt they same way they elect to follow Ashton Kutcher, Shaquille O’Neil or John McCain. Twitter alone is the authority on counting followers and policing their legitimacy.”
Gawker first reported the accusation, made by an anonymous former staffer, that Gingrich inflated his Twitter follower count. According to the staffer, the campaign paid outside agencies to create fake Twitter accounts.