On January 27th, 2018, The New York Times published ‘The Follower Factory,’ an exposé detailing shady black market firms that allow both celebrities and regular Joes alike to purchase social media followers. Since the publication of this investigation, scores of users have seen their Twitter followers drop— including those of Twitter board member Martha Lane Fox, who lost over 46,000 followers shortly after the piece was published.

Now the proliferation of fake accounts, and the companies who provide these types of services, are facing both federal and state scrutiny from lawmakers. The Federal Trade Commission has been asked to investigate “deceptive and unfair marketing practices” of these companies. The automated computer programs — or bots— purchased pose as real people online and are oftentimes stolen identities. As New York Attorney General, Eric Schneiderman tweeted, “The internet should be one of the greatest tools for democracy, but it’s increasingly being turned into an opaque, pay-to-play playground.”

Today I sat down to discuss the bot economy with two of the investigative reporters behind the ‘Follower Factory’ piece, Gabriel Dance and Richard Harris of the New York Times.

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