Why don't we start calling paying for fake followers what it really is

[afrophysics1]

fraud.

[anonyx69]

Plausible deniability. Fake followers aren't marketed as fake, they're just marketed as followers.

[throwaway2016a]

I have to wonder how many developers do this too. Or if they don't, use follow bots or some other method to get people to follow them.

I've seen a lot of developers post almost nothing in terms of quality content yet somehow have thousands of followers.

Meanwhile I try to post quality content and only have 600 followers. I have considered buying at some point but decided that I'd rather have fewer real followers than thousands of fake ones. And I've written books and spoken at dozens of conferences...

I can definitely see the argument that if I bought followers and a conference organizer or publisher used that as a metric by which to consider booking me it could be considered fraud.

[threatofrain]

I've started to suspect some Github projects are like that, but I wouldn't want to be wrong in calling a project out.

[aoeusnth1]

What’s your handle? :-)

[aje403]

I have dated 2 fashion models. One was signed. They purchased Instagram followers. I didn't know what that even meant before either of them (and still don't really care). They did it ( and realistically, it's just part of that world) to remain competitive in an extremely tough industry they were wrapped up in. While I'm still not with either and things didn't work out and the whole thing is a little ridiculous, I would not consider either of them to be engaging in criminally fraudulent behavior.

[mykoleary]

Any company that looks solely at followers and not at overall and long term engagement (comments and likes) trends with a user's follower base deserves what they get from the person that "sold" them the bill of goods they bought.

[dragonwriter]

You can buy comments and likes just as easily as followers. Once something manipulable becomes used as a measurable proxy for influence, it will be manipulated.

[jerkstate]

ooh, good idea, where can I buy some comments and likes?

[westondeboer]

Are internet points worth something in real life?

[revicon]

They are if a brand is paying you to endorse their products.

[AnimalMuppet]

If you care, they're worth a tiny ego boost. (But if you care very much, it often comes at the price of addictive behavior...)

[hprotagonist]

in the good old slashdot days, "astroturfing" was still a well-known verb.

[z_]

The Internet is serious business.

[dmschulman]

Fraud would imply malice and criminal intent. What is criminal about paying for fake followers?

[DannyBee]

No, it wouldn't. There is civil fraud too.

Here's the basic black's law dictionary definition:

An intentional misrepresentation of material existing fact made by one person to another with knowledge of its falsity and for the purpose of inducing the other person to act, and upon which the other person relies with resulting injury or damage.

[SCAQTony]

It could be considered criminal if you were stating your following or reach was immense, such as in the tens-of-thousands when really it was merely in the dozens, so as to arrange inflated endorsement dollars.

[cheschire]

If it results in a competing startup's product losing funding, and the fraudulent startup's product gaining funding based on fake followers, I could see the term "fraud" applying.

[bobthechef]

No.

From MW:

* intentional perversion of truth in order to induce another to part with something of value or to surrender a legal right

* an act of deceiving or misrepresenting

In other words, yes, fraud, your ticket to the 8th Circle of hell.

[afrophysics1]

upvoting this for starting a healthy debate.