Spanish PM wins 70,000 mystery Twitter fans
A surge in the number of Arab followers of the official Twitter account of Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has prompted a flurry of press attention and satirical comments on social media.
When the number of followers of Rajoy's Twitter account started to leap by tens of thousands a day at the start of the month, reaching 585,000 on Friday morning, the head of the FACUA consumer rights organization, Rubén Sanchez, asked in Spanish daily El Publico if they could be 'zombie' followers.
'Zombies' are automated, paid-for Twitter followers designed to make Twitter accounts look popular. As Rajoy's apparent fan-club overtook that of popular anti-austerity politician Pablo Iglesias, who has 523,000 followers, eyebrows began to be raised.
Indeed, in a matter of hours on Thursday night, Rajoy collected close to 70,000 new followers.
Another possibility was that the account had come under fire from so-called 'spambots' also known simply as 'bots', another type of automated account that follows Twitter users in order to plague them with junk messages.
The website of Spanish TV channel La Sexta pointed out that nearly all of the new followers were apparently Arab, most with few followers themselves and almost no account activity.
Mariano Rajoy's Twitter team account administrators acknowledged the situation and tweeted:
Damos la bienvenida a nuestro Twitter a gente real #NoBots. Equipo Twitter MR
— Mariano Rajoy Brey (@marianorajoy) September 5, 2014
#NoBots. We welcome real people to our Twitter.
And:
#NoBots Se está trabajando para averiguar quién está detrás de esta extraña campaña. Equipo Twitter MR
— Mariano Rajoy Brey (@marianorajoy) September 5, 2014
#NoBots We are working to find out who is behind this strange campaign.
Twitter was quick to respond to the situation and the Rajoy account soon retweeted its statement:
Estamos suspendiendo las cuentas falsas que infringen las normas de Twitter. http://t.co/99rNWmzS2l
— Twitter España (@TwitterSpain) September 5, 2014
We are suspending the fake accounts that break the rules of Twitter
But the situation had already generated on-line jokes.
Desaparecen más de 5000 civiles en Irak. Se teme que hayan ido a parar a la cuenta de twitter de Mariano Rajoy
— Jesús Arroyo (@GenteQueLucha) September 5, 2014
More than 5000 civilians are missing in Iraq. It's feared that they've gone to Mariano Rajoy's Twitter account
Primeras declaraciones de Rajoy ante las acusaciones de que tiene seguidores falsos en Twitter: "No es cierto, salvo alguna cosa...".
— Cristina Pardo (@cristina_pardo) September 5, 2014
First statement from Rajoy regarding accusations of having fake followers: It's all untrue, except for some things... (referring to Rajoy's infamous statement about press reports of his alleged implication in the scandal surrounding former ruling party treasurer Luis Barcenas)
Con la nueva reforma electoral de Rajoy, gobernará el alcalde con más seguidores en twitter. http://t.co/eHHDU3w1Ag pic.twitter.com/JeKkMWZOu2
— I Love Clicks (@iloveclicks) September 5, 2014
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When the number of followers of Rajoy's Twitter account started to leap by tens of thousands a day at the start of the month, reaching 585,000 on Friday morning, the head of the FACUA consumer rights organization, Rubén Sanchez, asked in Spanish daily El Publico if they could be 'zombie' followers.
'Zombies' are automated, paid-for Twitter followers designed to make Twitter accounts look popular. As Rajoy's apparent fan-club overtook that of popular anti-austerity politician Pablo Iglesias, who has 523,000 followers, eyebrows began to be raised.
Indeed, in a matter of hours on Thursday night, Rajoy collected close to 70,000 new followers.
Another possibility was that the account had come under fire from so-called 'spambots' also known simply as 'bots', another type of automated account that follows Twitter users in order to plague them with junk messages.
The website of Spanish TV channel La Sexta pointed out that nearly all of the new followers were apparently Arab, most with few followers themselves and almost no account activity.
Mariano Rajoy's Twitter team account administrators acknowledged the situation and tweeted:
Damos la bienvenida a nuestro Twitter a gente real #NoBots. Equipo Twitter MR
— Mariano Rajoy Brey (@marianorajoy) September 5, 2014
#NoBots. We welcome real people to our Twitter.
And:
#NoBots Se está trabajando para averiguar quién está detrás de esta extraña campaña. Equipo Twitter MR
— Mariano Rajoy Brey (@marianorajoy) September 5, 2014
#NoBots We are working to find out who is behind this strange campaign.
Twitter was quick to respond to the situation and the Rajoy account soon retweeted its statement:
Estamos suspendiendo las cuentas falsas que infringen las normas de Twitter. http://t.co/99rNWmzS2l
— Twitter España (@TwitterSpain) September 5, 2014
We are suspending the fake accounts that break the rules of Twitter
But the situation had already generated on-line jokes.
Desaparecen más de 5000 civiles en Irak. Se teme que hayan ido a parar a la cuenta de twitter de Mariano Rajoy
— Jesús Arroyo (@GenteQueLucha) September 5, 2014
More than 5000 civilians are missing in Iraq. It's feared that they've gone to Mariano Rajoy's Twitter account
Primeras declaraciones de Rajoy ante las acusaciones de que tiene seguidores falsos en Twitter: "No es cierto, salvo alguna cosa...".
— Cristina Pardo (@cristina_pardo) September 5, 2014
First statement from Rajoy regarding accusations of having fake followers: It's all untrue, except for some things... (referring to Rajoy's infamous statement about press reports of his alleged implication in the scandal surrounding former ruling party treasurer Luis Barcenas)
Con la nueva reforma electoral de Rajoy, gobernará el alcalde con más seguidores en twitter. http://t.co/eHHDU3w1Ag pic.twitter.com/JeKkMWZOu2
— I Love Clicks (@iloveclicks) September 5, 2014
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