To get the most comprehensive possible answer, we applied a single spam/fake account analysis process (described below) across five unique datasets. Musk) might choose to classify these accounts, but we bias to a relatively conservative interpretation of “Spam/Fake.” What Percent of Active Twitter Accounts are Spam or Fake? a company account with multiple users, like our own or a community account run by a single person, like Aleyda Solis’ We cannot know how Twitter (or Mr. Our systems do not, however, attempt to identify Twitter accounts that may be irregularly operated by a human but have some automated behaviors (e.g. SparkToro’s Fake Followers methodology (described in detail below) attempts to identify all of these types of inauthentic users. Their activities range from peddling propaganda and disinformation to those attempting to sell products, induce website clicks, push phishing attempts or malware, manipulate stocks or cryptocurrencies, and (perhaps worst) harass or intimidate users of the platform. They just don’t have a human being behind a device, personally engaging with the Twitter ecosystem.īy contrast, most “spam” accounts are an unwanted nuisance. These accounts, arguably, make Twitter a better place. For example, quite a few users find value in following a bot like automatically shares frontpage posts from the Hacker News website) or tweets photos and links from random restaurants discovered through Google Maps). Many “fake” accounts under this definition are neither nefarious nor problematic. “Spam or Fake Twitter accounts are those that do not regularly have a human being personally composing the content of their tweets, consuming the activity on their timeline, or engaging in the Twitter ecosystem.” Our definition (which may differ from Twitter’s own) can best be described as follows:

We address each of these questions below. Musk’s followers are spam, fake, or inactive? What percent of active Twitter accounts are spam or fake?.What is a spam or fake Twitter account?.However, in light of significant public interest, we joined forces with Twitter research tool, Followerwonk (whose owner, Marc Mims, is a longtime friend) to conduct a rigorous analysis answering: SparkToro is a tiny team of just three, and Fake Followers is intended for informal, free research (our actual business is audience research software).

Fake broken phone