Fake Followers on Twitter: Qs to Ask Yourself if You’re Shy of Hitting the Block Button

Does someone have a divine right to follow me?

Do I have enemies?

If I do have enemies, what is more important? My safety, or my (perfectly honorable and reasonable) desire not to mistakenly exclude a legitimate follower from my Twitter feed?

Does something look suspicious about this account?

If it does look suspicious, and I block it in error, then am I to blame for that? Or is this just an unfortunate and purely human error, rather than an act of deliberate malice?

Even if this ‘epic burger deals’ or ‘taxis in X city I’ve never been to in my life’ account were real, do they really care one way or another if I block them? I mean, don’t they have other options? Why should they care?

Even if you don’t think these people are dangerous, don’t you think assholey comments about ‘sodomites,’ ‘white genocide’ or whatever, are enough justification for blocking them, even if you’re only partly certain they are fake?

How do you think it looks to your serious followers (and worse still, potential followers!) to have porn stars, ‘before and after’ selfie merchants and hatemongers following your account?

Even if you can put up with a few fakes, do you want to legitimize a culture of tolerance, and thus risk attracting even more of these fake/bot/spam accounts?

Ultimately: if your account is full of potential fake followers, and you inadvertently exclude a legitimate account, is that your fault? Or the fault of the legitimate follower? Or the fault of the utter bellends who have been spamming and compromising your follower list?
Arguably, the latter one is the key one.

I often think 99% of human beings are more or less OK; at least by the radically imperfect standards of their own culture and time (some more so than others!) So it’s normal to ‘feel bad.’

But whose fault is that though, really?

Author: Wallace Runnymede

Wallace is the editor of Brian K. White's epic website, Glossy News! Email him with your content at wallacerunnymede#gmail.com (Should be @, not #!) Or if you'd like me to help you tease out some ideas that you can't quite put into concrete form, I'd love to have some dialogue with you! Catch me on Patreon too, or better still, help out our great writers on the official Glossy News Patreon (see the bottom of the homepage!) Don't forget to favourite Glossy News in your browser, and like us on Facebook too! And last but VERY MUCH not the least of all... Share, share, SHARE! Thanks so much for taking the time to check out our awesome site!