Millions of Fake Accounts Dog Twitter

Fake accounts, often bought for publicity purposes to influence trending topics, are thriving are Twitter. On Sunday, the Wall Street Journal highlighted the activities of one Twitter promoter, Jim Vidmar, who buys fake accounts, which are then programmed to follow his clients. Recent clients have included a number of rappers trying to break onto the scene. Dave Murrell, one of his clients, is totally aware that many of his followers are fake, but thinks the results are great. In his words, "if you're not padding your numbers, you're not doing it right. [...] It's part of the game."

So how are Vidmar and his colleagues able to get away with this? They program the fake accounts to simulate real users: tweeting, retweeting, following, and unfollowing. While Twitter claims that fake accounts represent 5% of all accounts on the social network, researchers have found that number to be almost double. The concern, obviously, with these fakes accounts is their ability to influence what is trending, which could undermine people's trust.

Facebook has been more successful in shutting down fake accounts than Twitter (Vidmar's account on Facebook has been suspended and legal action was threatened), which begs the question of why Twitter hasn't been doing more. With increased scrutiny now as a private company, perhaps, they will have to be more active in taking down these fake accounts and preventing the actions of Twitter promoters like Vidmar.

One step in the right direction is a recent job posting from Twitter for an anti-spam product manager. Anyone interested?