The Daily Dot has previously reported on the buying of fake followers as a form of attack.
And shortly after Keith Gill, AKA DigitalKeith tweeted that I had created my own chaos the fake followers began arriving in droves.
Of course the ready availability of fake followers is part of the problem with Twitter’s marketplace. You never know who is speaking to a real audience.
Instagram has purged many fake accounts. It would be wonderful if Twitter did the same.
This morning, within not that short a time I went from zero fake followers to lots.
It’s astonishing that DigitalKeith thinks an account warned for violent threats and suspended for non violent threats is credible.
There are a number of tools available to get rid of the fake followers relatively quickly.
Tweepi for one, which allows you to block eggs. Eggs being one of the identifiers of fake accounts.
I have no idea why Keith Gill, AKA Digital Keith has a problem with consumer advocacy blogging, but he clearly does.
This man is just way, way out of control.
Sadly he remains a leader at EmpireKred, a company with a well documented history of having a “Goon squad.”
This type of attack is just another well documented method used by trolls.
Cyber harassment involves threats of violence, privacy invasions, reputation-harming lies, calls for strangers to physically harm victims, and technological attacks. Victims’ in-boxes are inundated with threatening e-mails. Their employers receive anonymous e-mails accusing them of misdeeds. Fake online advertisements list victims’ contact information and availability for sex. Their nude photos appear on sites devoted to exacting revenge. On message boards and blogs, victims are falsely accused of having sexually transmitted infections, criminal records, and mental illnesses. Their social security numbers and medical conditions are published for all to see. Even if some abuse is taken down from a site, it quickly reappears on others. Victims’ sites are forced offline with distributed-denial-of-service attacks.
Have you been abused by the “Goon Squad” on Twitter?
