Credit: Yellow Sheet Report
As the deregulation debate rages, observers of the other big Cororation Commission fight – solar subsidy – noted this week one of APS’s allies appears to be inflating its web stature. Former Capitol Times editor Bill Bertolino pointed out on Twitter Wednesday Prosper, the 501(c)(4) Kirk Adams founded in January, seems to have an inordinate number of followers in Russia.
A scan of @ProsperOrg’s more than 13,000 followers shows numerous followers whose names and/or profile descriptions are in Cyrillic. A random sampling of accounts also shows many appear to be automated “Twitter bots,” or profiles that are not actually linked to real people, suggesting Prosper might have been paying to increase its stature on the web and make it appear as though it has a larger following than it actually does.
Figures compiled by the website Twitter Counter, which tracks activity on millions of Twitter profiles, support the notion Prosper has been purchasing followers. The site’s data shows there have been several spikes in the number of followers to Prosper’s Twitter profile. Between May 27 and June 23, the profile gained nearly 300 followers and grew to 964. In the next six weeks or so, that figure more than quadrupled – to 4,146 by Aug. 8. An even more pronounced increase in its followers began in the subsequent days, with an average of 517 profiles following Prosper each day until yesterday, when the figure topped out at 13,445. Some websites sell Twitter followers, and our reporter even found companies promising 10,000 followers for a minimal fee of between $25 and $100.
