this post was submitted on 21 Aug 2023
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Elon Musk's X follower count bloated by millions of new, inactive accounts::undefined

all 32 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Shazbot 117 points 1 year ago

Elon: "There are too many fake accounts for me to seriously consider buying this company."

Also Elon, after creating millions of inactive accounts to follow himself: "Please clap."

[–] [email protected] 92 points 1 year ago (2 children)

So he’s in the “fake it till you make it” phase. “If we pretend there’s trillions using our service, surely trillions of real users will eventually come! 👍”

[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I was thinking today how ridiculously accurate silicone valley (the show) has turned out to be. It feels like CEOs and mid level managers all watched that show and completely missed the fact that it was SATIRE.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

Only 7 generations if we double every time. Gotta pump up those population numbers by getting mars started and by getting rid of birth control.

[–] Potatos_are_not_friends 55 points 1 year ago

Probably an engineer that was threatened with being fired if he doesn't figure out how to get Musk millions of new followers.

[–] fubo 43 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So wait, he's stooped to being a shitty copy of Steve "spez" Huffman?

[–] assassinatedbyCIA 27 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It’s the other way around. Spez is trying real hard to emulate the muskrat.

[–] fubo 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)

No, Spez used fake users to make Reddit seem bigger than it was back when it started. He discusses this in an online course.

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/06/reddit-founders-made-hundreds-of-fake-profiles-so-site-looked-popular/

[–] AustralianSimon 5 points 1 year ago

Thanks for sharing, it seems like a standard strategy for back in the day when you didn't have all the metrics investors seem to want now.

[–] themajesticdodo 27 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Can this sub shut the fuck up about this joker for a day or two? Pathetic.

[–] Squander 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Hey mods! can you at least make it so the L4SBOT isnt posting Musk articles, this community already has plenty

[–] ilikekeyboards 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] Squander 2 points 1 year ago

OP is a bot. A pretty good bot, it keeps the sub fresh with new articles. We just need to stop talking about this guy.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

It's like watching a train wreck in slow motion. I just can't look away!

[–] frunch 2 points 1 year ago

I haven't tried them myself yet, but there are filters you can use to prevent specific topics/keywords from entering your feed.

[–] assassin_aragorn -1 points 1 year ago

It's enjoyable to hear about his continual and repeated fuck ups. All publicity is not good publicity.

[–] SoyTDI 22 points 1 year ago

When you register, Twitter/X asks you to follow a popular account. He is one of then. The problem is that maybe those accounts are used once to see Twitter content and then forgotten. They could be used to login in a different website. I don't doubt that he has many bots following him, but inactive bots are useless.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I have to wonder if he complained to the devs that his posts didn’t get enough impressions so they should update or “fix” the algorithm. Turned out it was easier to fake a change and he’s just now learning that he got tricked?

[–] Potatos_are_not_friends 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Most devs at Twitter are working just enough to look important for another week until they get accepted at another job.

[–] mr_tyler_durden 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Twitter developers fall into 1 of 3 categories:

  1. H1B Visa holders who are stuck

  2. Incompetent devs who can’t find another job

  3. True believers (you know, morons)

[–] alliwantsoda 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)
[–] assassin_aragorn 2 points 1 year ago
[–] Touching_Grass 10 points 1 year ago

It feels like he's covering up some type of crime more than anything

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

🤣🤣 rich people have their own problems

[–] sugarfree 6 points 1 year ago

Personally I've seen more bot activity after his takeover than before, which is strange considering his talk about bots.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Applies probably to all users. I'm getting a shit ton of bot followers aswell and have been for like half a year. I believe they're getting deleted on regular basis since my follower count isn't really growing despite the constant flow of new subscribtions. This isn't something that's just affecting Musk.

[–] xc2215x 4 points 1 year ago

Not surprising to see. A lot of accounts are not active.

[–] JTode 3 points 1 year ago

This is reach Kim levels.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Poor chump.

[–] gd42 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It would be probably cheaper and much better for the world to set up something like this for Elon, where everything is exactly how he wants it.

https://yewtu.be/watch?v=2OB4oZvfExk

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

He strikes me as the kind of guy who has someone sent to him to be fired daily so he can feel important, and at this point they just hire an actor each day to be the victim