Monday, September 15, 2014

Updated: Stuffing the Twitter Account

Based on a tip from The Network, I checked out the Twitter account of State Rep. Steve Simon (D-St. Louis Park).  Rep. Simon also happens to be the Democrat nominee for the office of Secretary of State on this year's ballot.  Among other duties, the Secretary oversees the state's elections.

Rep. Simon (as of this writing) has more than 70,600 followers on Twitter.  In contrast, Simon's running mates on the statewide Democrat ticket boast more modest totals.

Incumbent State Auditor Rebecca Otto has 1,754 followers, while Gov. Mark Dayton has 30,800 followers of his official state Twitter account and his official campaign Twitter account has 4,176 followers.  I could not find a Twitter account for Attorney General Lori Swanson.

What's to account for the remarkable popularity of this otherwise obscure politician?  Digging deep into the list of Simon's Twitter followers, one can find an unusual number of accounts with an egg for an icon, accounts with few (or no) followers of their own, and account profiles listing no letters in the English language. 

You have to admire the ability of a local politician to attract such a worldwide following.

[Update 1:  I was contacted by Rep. Simon, who reports that his account was hacked and he is working with Twitter to delete the fake accounts from his list of followers.  He reports that the number exceeded 100,000 at one point and is being worked down.]

[Update 2:  Two weeks later, we've whittled the total all the way down to 70,200 followers.]

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