Devumi sells Twitter followers and retweets to celebrities, businesses and anyone who wants to appear more popular or exert influence online. These fake accounts, known as bots, can help sway advertising audiences and reshape political debates. Randy Bryce, an ironworker seeking to unseat Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, purchased Devumi followers in 2015, when he was a blogger and labor activist. More than a hundred self-described influencers — whose market value is even more directly linked to their follower counts on social media — have purchased Twitter followers from Devumi. After receiving the names of 10 accounts, Mr. Calas, who had agreed to an interview, asked for more time to analyze them.

Source: New York Times January 27, 2018 16:18 UTC