- Jan 12, 2013
- 26,849
- 38,473
Anyone can do that. I can bot his followers too if I wanted to, all it would require is a private message and some bitcoin.
Twitter or social media bots in general aren't really some obscure hacker thing. The ones who have control over massive bot networks definitely are but anyone with some bitcoin can pay them and they'll direct their bots to whatever target you want.
Example: 1st up and 3rd from the bottom. Bots are generally used in moderation for obvious reasons, hence these prices. Too many bots (more than a few tens of thousands) would set off far too many red flags. Botting 5m followers in 3 days makes no sense in any way. There is no upside, twitter would flag that immediately.
Edit: I'll add that it is certainly possible that one large entity could be behind this but it would require either direct access to massive bot networks or a huge amount of money. In excess of a million dollars.
Russian intelligence services aren't a bunch of morons, they would know as well as anyone that this amount of botting would set off gigantic red flags at twitter. I think it's more likely that a lot of Trump supporters and/or wealthy supporters are collectively paying for botted followers. Because it's a really stupid move on every level.
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