How Fake Is Twitter’s User Data?

A crowdsourced question Elon Musk asked shows how fake Twitter user data is, saying that almost 20% of the total users are fake.

Over the last few weeks, there has been a growing sense that Elon Musk will not be the emancipator of Twitter, releasing it from its mystery algorithms that limit, block, and ban perfectly wonderful accounts entirely based on employee and management political vendettas.

He's rumored to have cold feet, as if Elon's quest for better data is just a ruse to hide his emotional doubt. That simply isn't the case. What he has deduced—that Twitter underreports the enormous number of fake accounts and bot armies that use its platform—could turn out to be yet another modern-day scandal.

It's only 5%, according to Twitter. Elon has crowdsourced the question and believes the number is closer to 20%.

The truth is out there, but Twitter is failing to admit it. Why is this the case? This is where we get to the heart of the problem: the reach data provided by...

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