South Africa: Sockpuppets Trolling Helen Zille Turn Out to Be Nothing More Than a Faulty Analytical Tool

analysis

A botspotting analysis using a single, inaccurate tool had prominent South African politicians levelling claims of co-ordinated social media manipulation against one another.

A recent analysis by botspotting service Twitter Audit of the followers of Helen Zille, federal chairperson of the Democratic Alliance (DA), revealed that nearly half of her 1.4 million followers are "fake". Zille accused her political opponents of running these accounts to manufacture outrage against her and "destroy her online".

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