By Arkady Petrov
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – According to the Fake Followers Audit, more than half of President Jair Bolsonaro’s (PSL) followers on Twitter are fake. In other words, they are bogus, inactive or robot profiles – software developed to simulate a common user.
“They have been drawing more and more attention for political purposes. Frequently, they like and comment on photos, other times, they also raise a topic on social media and react as their programmers wish”, said Thiago Rondon, joint director of the Institute for Technology and Equity to UOL Tecnologia.
As reported by Brazilian Media outlet UOL, out of 2,000 followers analyzed, 59 percent did not speak Portuguese, 61 percent were profiles created in the last 90 days, and 18 percent only showed the standard Twitter ‘egg’ for users without a profile photo.