Modi, RaGa, Kohli to lose their Twitter followers: Here's why
In a bid to combat misinformation and fake news, Twitter has been suspending more than a million accounts a day in the recent months. Using machine learning tools, Twitter is also proactively monitoring bot accounts that are used to push up follower counts of other profiles - a move which is likely to result in Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi, among others, losing followers.
Twitter is screening bot accounts at the sign-up stage
Apart from the aforementioned efforts, Twitter added that automated accounts ("bots", in tech parlance) are being screened during the sign-up process itself - more than 50,000 spam sign-ups per day are being blocked. Twitter bots are software programs that carry out automated tasks like posting and following, and are often used to artificially increase a profile's followers, make an issue trend, promote products, etc.
Following Twitter crackdown, many saw a decline in follower numbers
Earlier this year, Twitter announced important steps in its crusade against bots, trolls, and fake accounts including guidelines that prohibit mass tweets, likes, and follows, as well as posting identical messages from multiple accounts. Last month, Twitter said it found 10 million potentially spammy or automated accounts weekly. Interestingly, many key figures, from politicians to celebrities, saw sharp declines in numbers of followers.
Amitabh Bachchan had threatened to quit Twitter
Interestingly, in February, Amitabh Bachchan had threatened to quit Twitter after Twitter's anti-spam policy resulted in around 2,500 fake followers getting removed. "T 2599 - TWITTER!!!?? You reduced my number of followers!!??HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! thats a joke time to get off from you," Bachchan had tweeted.
How Modi, RaGa, and Trump compare
According to Twitter Audit data, PM Narendra Modi, who is the third-most followed politician on Twitter, has 23% fake followers among his 43 million following. That's almost 10 million fake followers. His political adversary, Rahul Gandhi, has 2.5 million fake followers among his 7 million following. However, percentage-wise, RaGa has 36% fake followers. Meanwhile, 14% of US President Trump's 51 million followers are fake.
How do the BJP and the Congress fare?
Insofar as political parties are concerned, one million among Congress' 4.5 million Twitter followers are fake - around 21%. Meanwhile, the BJP has approximately three million fake followers among its 10 million following.
Virat Kohli has more fake followers than real ones
Notably, Indian cricket team captain Virat Kohli has more fake followers as opposed to real ones - he has 11,307,796 real followers and 14,217,704 fake ones. His wife, actress Anushka Sharma has only 29% real followers. Meanwhile, 67% of Deepika Padukone's 25 million Twitter followers are real. Among Amitabh Bachchan's 30 million Twitter followers, 62% are real.
