# web: about ghostly followers: the real Jessica

<< The real Jessica [..] is a Minnesota teenager with a broad smile and wavy hair. [..] But on Twitter, there is a version of Jessica that none of her friends or family would recognize. >>

<< The accounts that most resemble real people [..] reveal a kind of large-scale social identity theft. At least 55,000 of the accounts use the names, profile pictures, hometowns and other personal details of real Twitter users, including minors, according to a Times data analysis. >>

<< By some calculations, as many as 48 million of Twitter’s reported active users - nearly 15 percent - are automated accounts designed to simulate real people, though the company claims that number is far lower. >>

Nicholas Confessore, Gabriel JX  Dance, Richard Harris, Mark Hansen.  The Follower Factory. Jan 27, 2018.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/01/27/technology/social-media-bots.html

<< A big chunk of those "likes," "retweets," and "followers" lighting up your Twitter account may not be coming from human hands. According to new research from the University of Southern California and Indiana University, up to 15 percent of Twitter accounts are in fact bots rather than people. >>

Michael Newberg. As many as 48 million Twitter accounts aren't people, says study. March 10, 2017.

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/10/nearly-48-million-twitter-accounts-could-be-bots-says-study.html

Onur Varol, Emilio Ferrara, et a. Online Human-Bot Interactions: Detection, Estimation, and Characterization. arXiv: 1703.03107.v2 Mar 27, 2017.

https://arxiv.org/pdf/1703.03107.pdf

Allie Nicodemo. Why buy social bots? For 'illusion of popularity,' researcher says. Jan 30, 2018

https://m.phys.org/news/2018-01-social-bots-illusion-popularity.html