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The Follower Factory

by Rami Essaid, Mark Hansen, Rand Fishkin, Leslie Miley, NICHOLAS CONFESSORE, GABRIEL J.X. DANCE, RICHARD HARRIS and MARK HANSEN

(5 total)

“48 million of Twitter’s reported active users — nearly 15 percent — are automated accounts designed to simulate real people, though the company claims that number is far lower. In November, Facebook disclosed to investors that it had at least twice as many fake users as it previously estimated, indi…”

— NICHOLAS CONFESSORE, GABRIEL J.X. DANCE, RICHARD HARRIS and MARK HANSEN, nytimes.com

Tagged: Social Media Is Bad, Fake Followers, Facebook, Twitter, digital age

“Twitter as a social network was designed with almost no accountability.”

— Leslie Miley, nytimes.com

Tagged: Twitter, Social Networks, Social Media Is Bad

“Fake (social media) accounts, known as bots, can help sway advertising audiences and reshape political debates. They can defraud businesses and ruin reputations.”

— NICHOLAS CONFESSORE, GABRIEL J.X. DANCE, RICHARD HARRIS and MARK HANSEN, nytimes.com

Tagged: Fake Followers, Social Media Followers, Social Media Marketing, Advertising, Capitalism

“You see a higher follower count, or a higher retweet count, and you assume this person is important, or this tweet was well received. As a result, you might be more likely to amplify it, to share it or to follow that person.”

— Rand Fishkin, nytimes.com

Tagged: Social Media Followers, Social Media Is Bad, Internet Culture, Social Media Engagement, How We Think

“Social media is a virtual world that is filled with half bots, half real people. You can’t take any tweet at face value. And not everything is what it seems.”

— Rami Essaid, nytimes.com

Tagged: Twitter, Social Media Followers, Social Media Is Bad, Internet Culture