We can say without a doubt that Elon Musk happens to have the highest number of followers on X, which was previously known as Twitter.
The world’s richest person acquired Twitter last year in October amid great controversy. And with a figure close to 153.5 million followers today, it’s beyond shocking to see how one man’s account continues to flourish with so many more followers despite so much hate generated against the tech billionaire on a daily basis.
Now the question is who are these followers and are they really active on X as they should be? Secondly, how frequently are they generating posts and are they producing enough creator content or not? Thirdly, do they have subscription plans on X which was once dubbed Twitter Blue or not? And last but not least, are they real humans or simply bots?
New data thanks to Mashable (and Travis Brown) has shed light on all of these facts where a researcher went to the painful extent to prove what the staggering 153 million user count belonging to Musk was all about.
The biggest question on so many curious minds is whether or not Musk’s followers were fake or not. And the data went as far as proving how most of them were inactive and they had the keen characteristics of those who didn’t use the site as often as one would have wanted.
Moreover, close to 42% of those accounts had zero followers featured on their respective accounts. And then more than 72% of Musk’s own followers had no more than 10 followers. How’s that for a shocker?
The next feature looked at in the study was how often these followers were posting. And it was proven that close to 62 million of those followers never posted a single tweet on the app. Additionally, 100 million of the rest of the followers had no more than 10 tweets.
Meanwhile, another very interesting point worth pondering is how the data from Elon Musk’s followers proved that most of them created accounts on the app after the billionaire took charge. Hence, they were never following him before that period of time.
The researcher explained how the data was just too skewed and that taking out an average from such findings would fail at producing at the form of meaningful reports in this case. Moreover, the median figure for followers on such accounts happens to be only one! How’s that for some shocking behavior?
These are definitely hinting at something very important. The data is clearly proving that these followers are fake, inactive, and could best be called out as absolute lurkers that are there to simply consume content.
We can see them as a combo of all three points. But some more stats are pointing out toward another kind of users. See, in the past couple of years, many experts have found certain trails that indicate who is real, who is fake, and who is a bot.
For example, fake accounts tend to make use of default avatars or usernames which are generated through automated means and also entail a long list of digits. And close to 25% of Musk’s users have this common feature in mind. Their profile picture has an X.
Meanwhile, close to 40% of Musk’s followers include close to four or more digits on their X handle.
Last but not least, the researcher looked at how many of these followers of Elon Musk had the X Premium subscription. And the answer is that just 453k were subscribed which is only 0.3%. Clearly, this is a fishy business and you can’t help but wonder how real Musk’s followers are.
Read next: Twitter's Block Button Vanishes: Elon Musk's Digital Sorcery Takes the Stage!
The world’s richest person acquired Twitter last year in October amid great controversy. And with a figure close to 153.5 million followers today, it’s beyond shocking to see how one man’s account continues to flourish with so many more followers despite so much hate generated against the tech billionaire on a daily basis.
Now the question is who are these followers and are they really active on X as they should be? Secondly, how frequently are they generating posts and are they producing enough creator content or not? Thirdly, do they have subscription plans on X which was once dubbed Twitter Blue or not? And last but not least, are they real humans or simply bots?
New data thanks to Mashable (and Travis Brown) has shed light on all of these facts where a researcher went to the painful extent to prove what the staggering 153 million user count belonging to Musk was all about.
The biggest question on so many curious minds is whether or not Musk’s followers were fake or not. And the data went as far as proving how most of them were inactive and they had the keen characteristics of those who didn’t use the site as often as one would have wanted.
Moreover, close to 42% of those accounts had zero followers featured on their respective accounts. And then more than 72% of Musk’s own followers had no more than 10 followers. How’s that for a shocker?
The next feature looked at in the study was how often these followers were posting. And it was proven that close to 62 million of those followers never posted a single tweet on the app. Additionally, 100 million of the rest of the followers had no more than 10 tweets.
Meanwhile, another very interesting point worth pondering is how the data from Elon Musk’s followers proved that most of them created accounts on the app after the billionaire took charge. Hence, they were never following him before that period of time.
The researcher explained how the data was just too skewed and that taking out an average from such findings would fail at producing at the form of meaningful reports in this case. Moreover, the median figure for followers on such accounts happens to be only one! How’s that for some shocking behavior?
These are definitely hinting at something very important. The data is clearly proving that these followers are fake, inactive, and could best be called out as absolute lurkers that are there to simply consume content.
We can see them as a combo of all three points. But some more stats are pointing out toward another kind of users. See, in the past couple of years, many experts have found certain trails that indicate who is real, who is fake, and who is a bot.
For example, fake accounts tend to make use of default avatars or usernames which are generated through automated means and also entail a long list of digits. And close to 25% of Musk’s users have this common feature in mind. Their profile picture has an X.
Meanwhile, close to 40% of Musk’s followers include close to four or more digits on their X handle.
Last but not least, the researcher looked at how many of these followers of Elon Musk had the X Premium subscription. And the answer is that just 453k were subscribed which is only 0.3%. Clearly, this is a fishy business and you can’t help but wonder how real Musk’s followers are.
Read next: Twitter's Block Button Vanishes: Elon Musk's Digital Sorcery Takes the Stage!
