SparkToro & Followerwonk Joint Twitter Analysis: 19.42% of Active Accounts Are Fake or Spam

TL;DR – From May 13-15, 2022, SparkToro and Followerwonk conducted a rigorous, joint analysis of 44,058 public Twitter accounts active in the last 90 days. These accounts were randomly selected, by machine, from a set of 130+ million public, active profiles. Our analysis found that 19.42%, nearly four times Twitter’s Q4 2021 estimate, fit a conservative definition of fake or spam accounts (i.e. our analysis likely undercounts). Details and methodology are provided in the full report below.

For the past three years, SparkToro has operated a free tool for Twitter profiles called Fake Followers. Over the last month, numerous media outlets and other curious parties have used the tool to analyze would-be-Twitter-buyer, Elon Musk’s, followers. On Friday, Mr. Musk tweeted that his acquisition of Twitter was “on hold” due to questions about what percent of Twitter’s users are spam or fake accounts.

SparkToro is a tiny team of just three, and Fake Followers is intended for informal, free research (our actual business is audience research software). However, in light of significant public interest, we joined forces with Twitter research tool, Followerwonk (whose owner, Marc Mims, is a longtime friend) to conduct a rigorous analysis answering:

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