Since Elon Musk took over Twitter management, there have been changes implemented to address the issue of fake followers. However, despite these efforts, the problem of fake followers persists. According to new data from dappGambl, as many as 10% of the followers of crypto influencers and companies on Twitter are fake.
In April 2023, Elon Musk introduced Twitter Blue, a subscription service priced at $8 per month, aimed at increasing the platform’s revenue while making it financially unviable for bots and fake accounts to operate. The intention was to verify accounts, ensuring that they belong to genuine users and not bots or fake profiles. However, dappGambl’s investigation revealed that up to 10% of the followers of the most popular crypto accounts on Twitter are still fake.
When examining the official accounts of cryptocurrency tokens and ecosystems, dappGambl found that Shiba Inu (SHIB) had the highest number of fake followers, with 10.26% or 80,000 fake accounts. Avalanche (AVAX) ranked second with 8.14% fake followers, followed by Polygon (MATIC) with 7.58% or 73,000 fake accounts.
DappGambl speculates that the relationship between Twitter accounts and their fake followers may be dependent on the popularity of the tokens. By analyzing the social sentiment behind crypto accounts, they discovered that Dai (DAI) is considered the most loved and popular coin on Twitter, while XRP (XRP) is the most hated and unpopular.
Moving on to crypto influencers and entrepreneurs, it was found that Samson Mow had the highest percentage of fake followers among his total following. Mow is currently being followed by 26,000 fake accounts, representing 10% of his total Twitter following. Other prominent figures with significant numbers of fake followers include Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey with 8.62% fake followers, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele and Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin with nearly 6.5% fake followers among their total count.
Others such as MicroStrategy co-founder Michael Saylor, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, and Elon Musk also have substantial numbers of fake followers, with percentages ranging from 4.76% to 6.16%.
Despite efforts to combat the issue, Elon Musk himself has over 6.7 million fake accounts following him. He is actively trying to find ways to identify and eradicate fake accounts. Some methods to identify fake accounts include checking the account’s creation date, investigating the profile picture, account bio, and tweets sent out by the account, and examining the account’s followers and those it follows.
Recently, a popular Twitter bot named Explain This Bob was suspended after Elon Musk deemed it a scam. The bot, created by Prabhu Biswal from India, utilized OpenAI’s GPT-4 model to comprehend and respond to tweets from users who mentioned the account. This incident highlights the ongoing battle against fake accounts and the need for constant vigilance.
In conclusion, despite efforts made by Twitter management since Elon Musk’s takeover, the problem of fake followers remains persistent. The data from dappGambl reveals that up to 10% of followers of crypto influencers and companies on Twitter are still fake. The relationship between Twitter accounts and their fake followers appears to be influenced by token popularity. It is important for users to remain cautious and employ strategies to identify and report fake accounts in order to maintain the integrity of the crypto community on Twitter.
