Mitt Romney Accused of Having Fake Twitter Followers Read more: http://latino.foxnew

Rather hilarious accusation.

Apparently Romney had a huge spike in Twitter followers, leading analysts to believe those followers are not real.

Is this Twittr-fraud? Or someone screwing with the campaign? Twitter-gate, or a paid for spike? Or perhaps Romeny's followers suddenly became tech savvy and were hanging on his very word?

Interesting that there is a "digital campaign department". I suppose there has been for years, but I have never heard the term.

But if you can get 10,000 users for $52, and the number of followers may raise your profile, why not?

Mitt Romney Accused of Having Fake Twitter Followers

Read more: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/po...-accused-having-fake-followers/#ixzz23poHwjAY


81 days from the presidential election, presumed GOP candidate Mitt Romney is being accused of having fake Twitter followers. Romney got 100,000 new followers in just one weekend, making social networking junkies do a double take.

An analysis by the technology firm Barracuda Labs found most of the Twitter users who followed Romney over that July weekend were probably fake, although it's impossible to know who's behind the spike: Romney's campaign, a supporter or an opponent. Romney went from 673,000 to 814,000 followers during that time, though that number has since risen to more than 861,000. President Barack Obama has more than 18 million followers.

Zac Moffatt, digital director for Romney's campaign, said the campaign did not purchase the followers and the number is not something they care about.

"If winning were about having the most Twitter followers, Obama would get blown up by Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber," Moffatt said. "It's whether people are retweeting or sharing. That is what is of value to us."

Retweeting is passing someone else's message on to the people who follow you on Twitter.

Brian Frederick, a professor of political science at Massachusetts' Bridgewater State University, said some lesser-known candidates might see a benefit from bulked-up followers if it means reporters and activists take them more seriously. It's a way for a candidate to create an illusion of popularity.

What kind of person buys and fakes friends to make it look like he's more popular than he is? It's really kind of pathetic.

- Eric Hyers, campaign manager for Rhode Island Democrat David Cicilline

But Wendy Schiller, a political science professor at Brown University, said there are no upsides and many downsides for any campaign that fakes its following because voters don't really care about the numbers.

"They do care if you're a fraud. They do care if you're lying about who supports you," Schiller said. "Why risk your credibility as a politician by engaging in that?"

Social media can be key in motivating campaign supporters, although experts say quality is more important than quantity. About 80 people work in the Romney campaign's digital department, a large portion of them on social media, Moffatt said. The Obama campaign said social media allow the campaign to communicate directly with voters without a filter but would not say how many of its staffers are directly engaged in it.

Zach Green is chief executive of 140elect, a Twitter-specific political consulting service, and runs 2012twit.com, which keeps Twitter statistics on the Obama and Romney campaigns. While Obama has more followers and tweets more frequently than Romney, Green's statistics show Romney's tweets are more widely shared.

It's easy and inexpensive to purchase followers on Twitter. Websites advertise 10,000 Twitter followers for as little as $52. Twitter prohibits the use of such services, as does Facebook, which also prohibits providing false personal information and creating more than one personal account. But a fake name and an email address are enough to get around those prohibitions. Facebook estimates nearly 4 percent of its 950 million users are not actual people. Similar statistics for Twitter are unavailable because it is privately held.

Similar questions about fake followers swirled around Newt Gingrich, who last year denied reports he paid for any of his 1.3 million Twitter followers.

The issue has played out in lower-level races as well.

In Rhode Island, little-known Democratic congressional candidate Anthony Gemma has 937,000 followers, nearly double the number of people who live in his district. Incumbent Democrat David Cicilline has a comparatively puny 3,500 followers.

Gemma, a businessman, has been making unusual claims regarding social media for years. When he first ran for Congress in 2010, he boasted he had more connections than Obama on the professional networking site LinkedIn, a claim that left some people scratching their heads as to why it was even worth mentioning.

More recently, he has seen several wild spikes in his Twitter following, which has reached 1 million on a few occasions. Many of his followers are in far-flung places like Russia with no obvious connection to Rhode Island, or have no photo or personal information on their profiles and have never sent a tweet.

Gemma's campaign manager, Michelle Place Gleason, would not comment on whether the campaign had paid to bulk up its numbers. She said the flap hadn't eroded his credibility. His opponent's campaign has made plenty of noise about it.

"What kind of person buys and fakes friends to make it look like he's more popular than he is? It's really kind of pathetic," Cicilline's campaign manager, Eric Hyers, said. "This whole thing is bizarre. Who cares how many followers you have?"

Read more: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/po...-accused-having-fake-followers/#ixzz23pprDGZ7

 

Remember when Newt Gingrich did this?

 

Remember Obama doing this and still does?

 

republicans have been telling lies, denying Americans the right to vote, fake twitter followers, whats next? guess they think that is the only way Romeny can win


.

 

Probably fake? That's it, no explanation?

 

No I actually don't.

 

If Mitt's team paid someone, or other wise cheated the sytem to add followers.. thats wrong.

But I will say I signed up on twitter a year or so ago to follow some sports players and writers. Never once made a tweet and I already have like 45 followers. Who are these people? I have no friggin' idea.

 

President Obama has more fake Twitter followers than Mitt Romney: report

LMAO!

 

Your source:

Obviously Obama and Romney have way more followers, so the tool becomes less accurate. In fact, "it becomes statistically meaningless for the presidential campaigns," Zach Green, CEO of 140elect.com, a Twitter political consulting service, told the Daily News. "You could check 70 times a day and get 70 different analyses, so it's not the most reliable."

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/pol...romney-report-article-1.1137888#ixzz23pzirfz2

 

What's your point? Obama still has more fake ones than Romney according to Fake Follower Check.

 

You could check 70 times a day and get 70 different analyses, so it's not the most reliable."

Let's think about this. Less than 1% was sampled for both. Do you think that's a good sample size for over 18 million?

 

You're a riot. You jumped right in to lump up on Romney for supposedly doing this, but put up a defense for Obama doing it in larger numbers. I should have guessed this is how it would go. Thread needs to be closed.

 

Please, show me where I said Mittens had fake accounts, or for that matter where I said Mittens did this?

 

You're right, my bad, you only mentioned Newt doing it. Now you know they are ALL doing it.

 

I only mentioned Gingrich, thank you for telling that. Now let's get back to what you said. Where did I say Mittens did this?

 

I just addressed that. Move along now.

 

By not adressing it? Show me my post, where I said Mittens did it.

 

Sheesh man, you quoted his acknowledgement. Down boy!

 

i. don't. care. I care nothing of twitter. What i care about is the direction of this country and the majority of the country do not want for more years of Mr. Barrack Obamao.

 

I said Newt, not Mittens. I want to see me talking about Mittens.

 

To keep their profiles high. Seems like a logical thing to do - cheap advertising. Why do people think this is bad? I don't think they're doing it to be dishonest - "look at how many twiterettes I have." I think they're doing it to keep their profiles up which, if I understand how this works, makes them more visible.

 

Do they all have fake birth certificates too?

 

Wonder when Obama and the democrats will actually talk about the real issues?

 

If that happens he might just as well resign now.

 

Yes, after all we all know Conservatives don't talk about pointless things.