Bonum Certa Men Certa

The European Spam Office: 37% of Twitter 'Followers' Are Fake, Maybe Even Paid For (Waste of EPO Budget)

Twitter audit for EPO



Summary: It seems as though around 37% of the EPO's 'followers' in Twitter are fake, which raises all sorts of potentially legitimate questions about the EPO's media team

THE EPO has almost as many Twitter 'followers' as the USPTO's Twitter 'followers' (we believe it used to be the opposite), but who are those 'followers' and how did they get there?



"Has the EPO resorted to these dirty tricks too?"Look at the so-called 'followers' of the EPO to spot a large bunch of "egg heads" (default icons) with no real names, barely any activity, etc. These are often used by so-called 'SEO experts', i.e. spammers. Such paid-for spam ("Followers Farming") is used by some insecure individuals and organisations to create an illusion of magnitude/importance/clout/size, but they sort of rely on people not checking where the numbers come from. Has the EPO resorted to these dirty tricks too? In other words, is the EPO supplying money to spammers and scammers? We don't know for sure, but a very large proportion, well over a third in fact, are dummy/spam accounts, based on this Twitter audit carried out by Petra Kramer from the Netherlands. We have not checked what the EPO is up to in LinkedIn, Facebook etc. Maybe readers can tell us...

The EPO openly bragged about these numbers not too long ago, which means it's very conscious of such 'vanity' numbers. Judging by the low level of interaction/engagement with EPO tweets, we were already very sceptical of the legitimacy of these so-called 'followers'.

"Well, we already know, based on leaks, that the EPO wastes millions of Euros interjecting itself into the media. So why not so-called 'social media' too?"If anyone out there has further information about this, please supply it to us confidentially.

The EPO is not exactly enjoying positive publicity right now. We need an English translation of this new page in German; SUEPO says it's a "[s]ummary only, press article requires registration and payment."

Well, we already know, based on leaks, that the EPO wastes millions of Euros interjecting itself into the media. So why not so-called 'social media' too?

Recent Techrights' Posts

Microsoft, Very Deep in Debt, Trying to Take Over Other Companies Without Paying to Buy Them
the CEO strengthened his loyalty to Microsoft
A Code of Conduct Can Lead to Deterioration of Quality Control in Linux (Nobody Reprimanded for Technical Issues, Instead Critics at Times of Crisis Get Reprimanded)
Quality control demands opinionated people, even blunt opinions at times
Online Media as a Lying Machine of Microsoft and Bill Gates (and, As Usual, Follow the Money)
The lies go a lot further than greenwashing
Links 11/12/2023: Buzzword Rules in the EU and Misinformation/Disinformation on the Rise
Links for the day
Today in Techrights
Some of the latest articles
Misogynists Versus Techrights
the "imams" of the tech world
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, December 10, 2023
IRC logs for Sunday, December 10, 2023
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news
Links 11/12/2023: Climate News and Chatbots as Plagiarism
Links for the day
Links 10/12/2023: Second Belmarsh Tribunal For Assange, EU Legislates for Buzzwords
Links for the day
Links 10/12/2023: Inflation Woes, Tensions With China
Links for the day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, December 09, 2023
IRC logs for Saturday, December 09, 2023
Links 09/12/2023: Dictator's Nomination in Russia
Links for the day
[Video] To Combat Efforts to Cancel or Kill the Career (and Reputation) of the People Who Made GNU/Linux We Must Rally the Community
nobody speaks better for projects and for licences than their own founders
Electronic Frontier Foundation Incorporated is Run by/for Corporations Now (Members' Money is Less Than a Quarter of the Money EFF Receives)
Facebook bribes
The EFF Should Know Better, But It Is Promoting Mass Surveillance by Facebook (an Endorsement of Lies)
What is going on at the EFF?
Feedback Desired
Feedback can be sent by E-mail
A Message in Support of Richard Stallman, Condemning Those Who Misportray Him
message about Richard Stallman (RMS)
Links 09/12/2023: Many 'Open'AI Employees Strongly Dislike Microsoft, Many Impending Strikes
Links for the day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, December 08, 2023
IRC logs for Friday, December 08, 2023
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news