Coverage dated May 13, 2022 to May 17, 2022

Half of Joe Biden's Twitter followers are fake, audit reveals

Headline from Newsweek

Billionaire Elon Musk has claimed that 20 percent of Twitter users are "spam/fake accounts" amid his ongoing takeover bid.

Newsweek's own description from its feed. We collect headlines and these descriptions, not full articles; read the original reporting below.

Earlier updates in this story

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Reports & sources

5 articles, oldest first.

NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth
Elon Musk Wants to Know How Many Fake Accounts Twitter Has, But Experts Say His Approach Is All Wrong (opens NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth)
Published May 13, 2022
NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth's feed description
Researchers say Elon Musk’s suggested approach for tabulating fake accounts on Twitter is woefully deficient.
Newsweek
Half of Joe Biden's Twitter followers are fake, audit reveals (opens Newsweek)
Published May 16, 2022
Newsweek's feed description
Billionaire Elon Musk has claimed that 20 percent of Twitter users are "spam/fake accounts" amid his ongoing takeover bid.
BizPac Review
Is Elon Musk right? Nearly half of Biden's 22.2M Twitter followers are fake, audit finds (opens BizPac Review)
Published May 17, 2022
BizPac Review's feed description
A new audit performed by the software company SparkToro reveals that half of Biden's Twitter followers may be fake accounts.
Insider
More than 23% of Elon Musk's Twitter followers are spam or fake accounts, research groups say (opens Insider)
Published May 17, 2022
Insider's feed description
The analysis was based on a system of 17 warning signals that point to an account being suspicious, two audit research groups said.
Townhall
Audit Reveals Shocking Percentage of Biden's Twitter Followers Are Fake (opens Townhall)
Published May 17, 2022
Townhall's feed description
With billionaire Elon Musk’s Twitter deal on the rocks over the percentage of users that are bots, renewed focus is on the social media company’s fake accounts. If it is