A recent report by social media analysis company Cyabra reveals a surge in fake accounts on social media platform X (formerly Twitter) posting about the US presidential election.
The report found that 15% of accounts praising former President Donald Trump and criticizing President Joe Biden are fake, while 7% of accounts praising Biden and criticizing Trump are also inauthentic.
Cyabra’s study, conducted from March 1 to May 1, analyzed posts on the X platform using machine learning to identify fake accounts.
The review included popular hashtags and sentiment analysis to determine whether posts were positive, negative, or neutral.
The analysis revealed a significant increase in newly detected fake accounts, with a tenfold increase during March and April.
The report identified 12,391 inauthentic pro-Trump profiles out of 94,363 total and 803 inauthentic pro-Biden profiles out of 10,065 total.
The fake accounts praising Trump appear to be part of a coordinated campaign to sway public opinion and influence online discussions, with evidence including the use of identical hashtags and simultaneous posting of comments.
The report did not identify the individuals or groups behind the campaign.
Cyabra’s vice president, Rafi Mendelsohn, noted that “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.”
In contrast, the fake accounts backing Biden do not appear to be part of a coordinated campaign.
The report’s findings raise concerns about the spread of misinformation ahead of the November 5 election.
Social media platforms, including X, have faced scrutiny since 2016, when Russia interfered in the US presidential election.
Election officials and online misinformation experts are watching for misleading narratives and coordinated campaigns to influence public opinion.
X has downplayed the use of fake accounts on its platform, with CEO Elon Musk stating in May 2022 that fewer than 5% of daily active users were “false or spam.”
However, Cyabra estimated in 2022 that 13.7% of Twitter profiles were inauthentic. In response to the report’s findings, Musk tweeted on April 4 that a “system purge of bots and trolls” was underway and that the company would “be tracing the people responsible and bringing the full force of the law to bear upon them.”
X has since tested its “Not a Bot” program in New Zealand and the Philippines to combat bots and spammers.
