A new report reveals that fake accounts discussing the U.S. presidential election are rapidly increasing on the social media platform X.
The analysis, conducted by Israeli tech company Cyabra and shared exclusively with Reuters ahead of its Friday release, highlights the proliferation of these accounts.
Cyabra, which employs machine learning to detect fake accounts, discovered that 15% of X accounts supporting former President Donald Trump and criticizing current President Joe Biden are fake.
Additionally, 7% of accounts supporting Biden and criticizing Trump are also fake.
This study is based on a two-month review of posts on X, formerly known as Twitter, starting from March 1. The review included an analysis of popular hashtags and the sentiment of posts, whether positive, negative, or neutral.
The findings indicate a significant rise in newly detected fake accounts, which increased up to tenfold during March and April.
The report identified 12,391 inauthentic pro-Trump profiles out of a total of 94,363, and 803 inauthentic pro-Biden profiles out of 10,065.
Representatives from X, the White House, and the Trump campaign did not respond to requests for comment on these findings.
Since the 2016 election, when Russian interference aimed to support Trump and undermine his opponent Hillary Clinton, social media platforms like X have faced increased scrutiny.
With the upcoming election on November 5, election officials and experts in online misinformation are closely monitoring for misleading narratives.
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