BJP IT cell has often been accused of running a systematic propaganda. However, Congress is no clean in this regard either. The problem of fake followers has plagued the political system.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi stands at number 1 in the list of most followed Indian leaders on Social media sites. On micro-blogging platform Twitter, PM Modi has as many as 41 million followers on Twitter. However, a recent report revealed that 60% of his followers are fake.
The report made after a study undertaken by Twitter Audit suggests half of the follower world leaders have on Twitter can be fake. Twitter analysed the accounts of The United States President Donald Trump, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Pope Francis, Pena Nieto, and King Salman. The list also included celebrities like Taylor Swift and Kim Kardashian.
Though Modi is not the only one having fake followers, he certainly tops the list. According to the Twitter Audit report, as much as 16,191,426 followers of PM Modi are Real while 24,799,527 followers are Fake. The report was released on February 21. Since then Modi has gained 0.7 million followers more.
Other leaders:
The US President Donald Trump has over 49 million followers on Twitter. According to the report, 37% of the follower are fake. However, the numbers have slid down since the report came out. Today, his fake followers have been reduced to only 25%.
Similarly, Pope Francis who had 59% of fake followers, has lost the numbers of such accounts. Currently, he has 47% of fake followers.
Mexican President Pena Nieto, however, is constant with 47% of fake followers and so as Saudi Arabia’s King Salman with 8% fake followers.
The Fake Follower Fiasco:
The fake accounts are mostly generated through bots. Most of the times these Twitter accounts steal personal data of real people including their pictures, location information, etc. and create a dummy account on the other/same name with a slight variation. On January 27, 2018, The New York Times published a story named “The Follower Factory”.
The story exposed a small-town American firm which sells Twitter followers and retweets to celebrities, businesses and anyone who wants to appear more popular or exert influence online. The New York Times also alleged that the firm collected millions of dollars in a shadowy global marketplace for “social media fraud”. According to new research from the University of Southern California and Indiana University, reported in CNBC on March 2017, almost 48% of Twitter users are fake which roughly makes up to 15% of the total Twitter users. While Twitter had defended itself saying the number wasn’t really worrying, in the last one year the number could have grown.
How does it pose a threat to us?
The fake followers are mostly used for spreading a message by the influencer. More number of likes and retweets imply that the influence and reach of the particular person is more. Social Media has been an important rather essential tool of communication these days. From World leaders to students, the Twitter account reflects the ideologies, opinions the person holds.
The fake accounts/ bots indulge in trolling and vicious campaigning as well. Sometimes these are faceless accounts with fake names. At a time when social media has taken an indivisible role in our lives, such propaganda bots pose a serious threat. Election campaigning is also done on the internet these days. How social media helps to build a hype of a political campaign can be well understood by observing the role of social media in BJP’s 2014 campaign.
Political parties also have their IT cells which also indulge in these practices. BJP IT cell has often been accused of running a systematic propaganda machinery by infiltrating social media platforms with fake accounts. Recently, BJP leader Paresh Rawal posted a document on his Twitter in which details of the alleged fake trend planned by the party’s IT cell were given.
World Leaders and their Fake followers
Some of the most followed world leaders and their share of bot followers as determined by https://t.co/TdNIomSdNt. Graphics prepared by @Saosasha @gzeromedia#DigitalDiplomacy pic.twitter.com/viid9ZTReV
— Twiplomacy ➡️#DiploCamp #Brussels (@Twiplomacy) February 21, 2018
Congress is no clean either in this regard. The year 2017 saw a sudden surge in the activities of Congress President Rahul Gandhi’s Twitter account. The account not only gained popularity among social media users, mainstream media too used the tweets in their broadcast stories to show the Congress’ perspective. However, ANI in its exposes revealed that most of the accounts that retweeted his tweets were from Russia, Kazhak or Indonesia. Moreover, these accounts had no activity on their timelines except for retweets of Rahul Gandhi.
In the United States, social media especially Twitter played a key role in Donald Trump’s aggressive campaign of “Make America Great Again”.
These examples are enough to prove that social media influence also reflected in the real-life politics. Thus, social media today has the power of changing or moulding the narratives. With fake accounts, such narratives are manufactured to suit the actions of the leader/personality who employed them.
These bots and fake followers, in a larger context, are also a threat to democracy. A large number of retweets with hashtags amplify only one message. Therefore, if someone searches a particular hashtag he may mostly find the amplified message easily suppressing the different point of view or perception.
These fake accounts many a time also indulge in threatening, vicious trolling and hate mongering. HW News in its video “I am a Troll” had explained how the trolls work and what impact they have on public discourse.
The Fake Followers have infected the social media’s democratic characteristics. The firms creating, buying and selling fake follower can said to be operating in a black market of social media. Thus, it becomes even more important to ensure that Social media becomes a safer place for the public to use.
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