United States – Accounts that have commented on the U. S. presidential election fraud exist on the X social media service, a report by a company specializing in social media analytics, which was disclosed to Reuters and will be released on Friday.
Analysis Highlights Percentage of Fake Accounts
Cyabra, an Israeli tech company that utilizes machine learning to effect bogus profiles, says that fifteen percent of X complementary profiles of former President Donald Trump insulting today’s President Joe Biden are fake. The study also revealed that 7% of accounts that were pro-Biden, a Democratic candidate, and anti-Trump, a Republican, were fake, as reported by Reuters.
Cyabra’s work is traceable to the analysis of posts on a platform it refers to as X, which was once Twitter, from March 1 to two months later. It also involves identifying trends, with particular emphasis on the identified hashtags, and evaluating the sentiments of the posts as either positive, negative, or neutral.
The trend, established for newly detected fake accounts, elevated to ten during March and April.
The report roster 94,363 inauthentic accounts supporting Trump with a figure of 12,391 while 10,065 total accounts supporting Biden with 803 inauthentic profiles.
Response from X Social Media Service
A representative of X declined to comment on the fake accounts and the subject, as did the White House and Trump campaign.
X and other social media have been under more pressure since Russia in 2016 sought to influence the US election in favor of Trump and against Clinton, the Democrat. It is once more up to election officials and misinformation researchers to track these stories up to the Nov. 5 election.
According to Cyabra, the accounts that gave Trump positive sentiments this cycle are not genuine and have been activated to manipulate the general public’s perception and the flow of conversation. The report did not disclose the persons and organizations behind the advertising campaign.
Cyabra said it reached that conclusion due to factors such as users mirroring each other’s use of hashtags and fake accounts posting messages and comments at similar times. The report found that the phony pro-Trump accounts pushed two main messages: ”Vote for Trump” and “This Biden is the worst president the US has ever had.”
Manipulative Tactics and Coordinated Efforts
“The level of coordination suggests that there is a nefarious objective and that there is a whole operation in order to change people’s opinion,” said Cyabra’s vice president, Rafi Mendelsohn.
The report said the fake accounts amplifying the content supporting Biden are actually random, as key features of a coordinated account, including synchronized posting, were not observed.
It, which was still publicly traded until its acquisition by billionaire Elon Musk in 2022, has traditionally dismissed concerns about fake accounts on its platform as insignificant. Twitter’s internal analysis in May 2022 revealed that less than 5% of its daily active user base are the “false or spam” ones, the company claimed. At the time, Cyabra had estimated that percent of 13. It was established that 7% of Twitter profiles were fake, as reported by Reuters.
On April 4th, in an X post, Musk announced that there would be a “system purge of bots and trolls” and that the company would be tracing people behind it and using the full extent of the law. In October, in New Zealand and the Philippines, the company trialed its “Not a Bot” system to counter bots and spammers.