Politics

55 percent of Obama’s Twitter followers are fake

Josh Peterson Tech Editor
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An incredibly high percentage of President Obama’s Twitter followers are fake, while the opposite is true for Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.

According to the Twitter analytics application, Status People, 55 percent of President Obama’s 36,802,378 Twitter followers — or approximately 20,240,107 followers — are fake.

A ‘fake follower,’ according to Status People, is a spam account following the user. During the presidential election season, candidates’ Twitter accounts came under public scrutiny for possibly purchasing followers to try to bolster their social media credibility.

Twenty-four percent of Obama’s Twitter followers are inactive, and only 21 percent — or approximately 7,728,499 followers — are real.

Obama’s Twitter account has been active since March 2007, according to the Twitter analytics application Foller.me.

In comparison, 17 percent of Rouhani‘s 45,680 followers are considered fake. 30 percent are inactive, and 53 percent — or approximately 24,201 followers — are real.

Rouhani took to his account on Thursday evening following the publication of an op-ed bearing his name in the Washington Post to promote the article, posting numerous links to the piece.

In response to Rouhani’s enthusiasm, Buzzfeed reporter Rosie Gray replied, “.@HassanRouhani has tweeted his WaPo op-ed like 20 times in the past 15 hours. we’ve seen it dude!”

Rouhani’s Twitter account has been active since May, according to Foller.me.

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