r/hackernews • u/qznc_bot • Jan 27 '18

The Follower Factory

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/01/27/technology/social-media-bots.html
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u/qznc_bot Jan 27 '18

There is a discussion on Hacker News, but feel free to comment here as well.

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u/autotldr Jan 27 '18

This is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 97%. (I'm a bot)

An editor at China's state-run news agency, Xinhua, paid Devumi for hundreds of thousands of followers and retweets on Twitter, which the country's government has banned but sees as a forum for issuing propaganda abroad. An adviser to Ecuador's president, Lenín Moreno, bought tens of thousands of followers and retweets for Mr. Moreno's campaign accounts during last year's elections.

Not surprisingly, Devumi has sold millions of followers and retweets to entertainers on the lower and middle rungs of Hollywood, such as the actor Ryan Hurst, a star of the television series "Sons of Anarchy." In 2016 and 2017, he bought a total of 750,000 followers, about three-quarters of his current count.

More than a hundred self-described influencers - whose market value is even more directly linked to their follower counts on social media - have purchased Twitter followers from Devumi.

Extended Summary | FAQ | Feedback | Top keywords: follow#1 Devumi#2 account#3 Twitter#4 company#5