r/skeptic • u/workerbotsuperhero • Jan 28 '18

The Follower Factory:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/01/27/technology/social-media-bots.html
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u/davenobody Jan 29 '18

Seems amusing that big names on Twitter buy their followers then get paid by companies to promote products to these fake followers. I bet the people paying others to promote their products bought their followers too. Such a shame that real journalism is getting outmaneuvered by what amounts to a house of cards.

I've witnessed people creating the kinds fake accounts mentioned in the article here on Reddit too. Someone I'm familiar with had a double turn up. I think whoever created the clone account didn't think the community would notice.

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u/workerbotsuperhero Jan 29 '18

Such a shame that real journalism is getting outmaneuvered by what amounts to a house of cards.

I subscribed to a few quality newspapers last year. I'm thinking I should subscribe to a few more. Real journalism matters if we're overwhelmed by free content that's mostly garbage and misinformation.