Most of Elon Musk followers on X (formerly Twitter) are reportedly fake

Elon Musk has more than 153 million followers on his X (formerly Twitter) account but according to a new report, most of his followers are fake and the count is bloated by millions of new, inactive accounts. Of the 153,209,283 X accounts following Musk, around 42 percent of his followers, or more than 65.3 million users, have zero followers on their own account, reports tech website Mashable which reviewed the data collected by third-party researcher Travis Brown. The average number of followers for all 153 million accounts following Musk is just around 187.

According to the data, only 453,000 Musk followers or 0.3 percent subscribe to X Premium (earlier Twitter Blue for $8 a month). Over 72 percent, or nearly 112 million, of these users following Musk have less than 10 followers on their account, the report revealed. “A lot of Musk’s followers have traits that would lead people to ascertain that they are not actually using the site,” it noted. When it comes to content creation, more than 62.5 million Musk followers have zero tweets. “More than 100 million Musk followers have less than 10 tweets posted to their account,” according to the data. Musk acquired Twitter for $44 billion on October 27, 2022, and according to his latest post on X, the platform now has more than 540 million monthly users.

Out of all of the tech billionaire’s current followers, more than 25 percent, or 38.9 million, were created on or after that date.

The metrics

The median number of followers for all 153 million accounts following Musk is just one (1) single follower. “All of the above data points could signal fake accounts, describe users who are inactive, or even ‘lurkers’ — users who exclusively consume content. It’s likely a combination of all three,” the report said. Around 25 percent of all of Musk’s followers, or more than 38 million, use the default profile image that X provides for new accounts. More than 40 percent of Musk’s followers, or just under 50 million, have 4 or more numbers in their ‘@’ handle on X, Mashable reported.

In other news, X seems to have removed most images and URL links that were posted before December 2014 in what is being speculated as a move to cut the company costs further. Spotted by a user who goes by Tom Coates, one of the most famous photographs featuring Hollywood celebrities such as Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, and Meryl Streep clicked by Ellen DeGeneres at the 2014 Academy Awards ceremony disappeared. The tweet instead had a URL that is not clickable. However, after an uproar the image seems to have been restored, according to The Verge.

— Written with inputs from IANS