One third of Boris Johnson’s Twitter followers are fake or ‘bots’
One third of these followers aren't real. Picture: Archant - Credit: Archant
Boris Johnson is way out in front of other leaders when it comes to fake Twitter followers, a new analysis has revealed.
Thirty-four per cent of the prime minister's 1.25 million Twitter followers were found to be fake accounts or bots - the highest of a current party leader out of all the main UK parties.
This puts his real follower count somewhere around 825,000.
Just behind him on the list is Nigel Farage, of whose followers 32% are fakes.
The research comes at a time when Twitter has banned political advertising and organic reach is key to the digital campaign battleground.
OPINION: Don't fall for Boris Johnson's Twitter trap
You may also want to watch:
The leader with the most authentic Twitter base is Jeremy Corbyn, 81% of whose 2.2 million followers are real users of the social media platform - leaving him with a healthy 1.78 million real people signed up for his tweets.
The Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson also has a nearly 80% real follower count, while SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon has around 73% real followers.
Most Read
- 1 This chumocracy is costing our country
- 2 Bob Geldof takes swipe at No 10 saying 'lying is second nature' to them
- 3 Jacob Rees-Mogg says it's 'all the EU's fault' musicians can't tour Europe
- 4 Fifteen ways to fix Britain
- 5 Tory minister admits UK rejected EU's music visa offer in order to 'take back control' of borders
- 6 Poll finds Brexit-backing Wales would vote to rejoin EU
- 7 Piers Morgan tells Gavin Williamson to resign for being a 'catastrophe'
- 8 Tory MP complains 'less scrutiny of trade deals' than when UK was in EU
- 9 Who's on the BBC's Question Time tonight?
- 10 Nigel Farage loses nearly 50,000 followers after Twitter suspends QAnon accounts
The Conservative Party's hyper-enthusiastic social media following has aroused comment before, such as in October when one of the prime minister's 'People's PMQs' on Facebook received rapturous and oddly samey comments from hundreds of accounts.
'Brilliant, Boris!': Army of Facebook commenters all say the same thingsThe research, from digital marketing company ICS-digital, identified that fake followers is endemic across the political spectrum.
Out of candidates, former Lib Dem leader Tim Farron was found to have the highest percentage of fake followers on Twitter - almost 65% of his 295,000 followers. Across all parties, Labour was found to have the most fakes between all its candidates.
Following Twitter's ban on political advertising, having extra followers could be a considerable boon in amplifying a candidate's perceived popularity.
Become a Supporter
The New European is proud of its journalism and we hope you are proud of it too. We believe our voice is important - both in representing the pro-EU perspective and also to help rebalance the right wing extremes of much of the UK national press. If you value what we are doing, you can help us by making a contribution to the cost of our journalism.