Aren’t all “influencers” phony to some degree?
Strange news: analyzing the top MAGA users on Twitter reveals that many of them are not American.
The account MAGANationX, with nearly 400,000 followers and a bio reading “Patriot Voice for We The People”, is actually operated from eastern Europe, according to the Daily Beast. Another popular profile, IvankaNews, an Ivanka Trump fan account with around one million followers that frequently posts about illegal immigration, Islam and support for Trump, was revealed to be based in Nigeria.
Another user also uncovered several additional cases. Dark Maga, a smaller account with roughly 15,000 followers, is run from Thailand. MAGA Scope, which has more than 51,000 followers, operates out of Nigeria, while MAGA Beacon is based in south Asia.
Users on Reddit also joined the exposé effort, posting examples of accounts that appeared to misrepresent their origins. One Reddit user posted a screenshot of a woman who claimed to live in Texas but instead appeared to be located in Russia, though as of Sunday, the user named in the post appears to have a US location. Many in the comments posted other examples they found.
Bots spreading misinformation and propaganda has been a long-running problem on Twitter, a problem that has been significantly exacerbated since Musk bought it in October 2022 and then renamed it X. Its AI chatbot, Grok, has also been found to frequently make and amplify false claims.
You have to wonder what the incentives are for these influencers. Is it just the account/advertising revenue? Are they subidized by foreign governments, or by American billionaires? Or perhaps they’re just patriotic Eastern Europeans or Nigerians or SE Asians who hate America?
It does say something that these popular MAGA jerks, who have managed to fool a great many Americans, aren’t actually interested in making America great.
I’d love to know where Gunther Eagleman and Catturd’s accounts actually originate. Just curious.
Another group is weird influencers who just want to appear popular, no matter how much they have to lie about who they are or what they believe to get there. If MAGA is popular and will get you followers then they are onboard to be MAGA, that it’s a national movement for a country they are not a citizen of doesn’t matter. For this MAGA also has the advantage of requiring little work or creative thought.
@JM
“No one ever lost money underestimating the intelligence of the American public.”
― H.L. Mencken
“You have to wonder what the incentives are for these influencers.”
I don’t. Monetisation of clueless ideological saps, that’s what I reckon.
Not the biggest niche, puts off normal types, but evidently still sufficient.
The $$$/IQ ratio is super-high for MAGAts, making a target-rich environment for scammers and grifters.
They’re really just marks aka gullible assholes.
Once again immigrants stealing jobs from real MAGA. “They took our jobs”.
On the one hand, this isn’t really news – I remember there was a big network of Eastern European teenagers running MAGA-type content back before the election, because it turns out the US right is a veritable gold mine for scammers and affiliate marketers. They’d trying doing the same for the other side, but the gave up because D voters weren’t gullible enough. (Can’t find the details now, because search sucks and the topic has been swamped.)
On the other hand, geo-location generally isn’t very reliable thanks to the existence of Tor and VPNs, and I wouldn’t trust X’s geo-location in particular, because X’s has been so badly broken since Musk took over and fired everyone who knew what they were doing. So I expect there’s a fair number of false positives in there…
I also expect a fairly large portion of the genuinely American ones are only doing it for the purposes of running scams and affiliate marketing.
The old saying “on the internet, nobody knows you’re a dog” still holds.
@8 Dunc
Naw, that can’t be it. There is plenty of gullibility in the Blue MAGA camp. Observe their current obsession along the lines of, “Surely this will be the thing that gets Trump once and for all!”: the Epstein files. But the resistance liberals have thrown their lot in with a dying party that is fast fading into irrelevance. That part is the true scam — if you’re trying to get in on the action and your name isn’t ActBlue, it’s slim pickings.
It’s what @5 said, MAGA has just as little sense but is wealthier on average, which makes them a juicier target.
“There is plenty of gullibility in the Blue MAGA camp.”
That is incoherent. Either blue or MAGA, they do not overlap. There are no MAGA democrats.
Tsk. Your bullshit gets ever weaker.
@10
John, you pretend to have knowledge of U.S. politics you don’t actually have. You live on the opposite side of the planet. Kind of like the influencers OP mentioned.
Stevo, oddly enough, despite also being on the opposite side of the planet, is tuned into Blue MAGA. He is their hyperpartisan id — he punishes party disloyalty (in his own ineffectual but repetitive way) and the stuff he throws on the Infinite Thread about the 2024 election actually being stolen is red meat for that demographic.
Any scammers going after Blue MAGA by fundraising a future “Stein-proofing” of our election system would do well to get Stevo’s attention.
@9 beholder writes “MAGA has just as little sense but is wealthier on average, which makes them a juicier target.”
I don’t believe that is the case. See, for example,
“….the majority of lower-income households or those earning less than $50,000 a year voted for Trump this [2024] election. Conversely, those making more than $100,000 voted for Harris, according to exit polls.”
A number of sources offer similar conclusions.
https://www.reddit.com/r/centrist/comments/1gmeso4/a_graph_of_voters_by_household_income/
I wonder how many of those hundreds of thousands of followers are just other bots?
“John, you pretend to have knowledge of U.S. politics you don’t actually have. You live on the opposite side of the planet. Kind of like the influencers OP mentioned.”
Beholder, welcome to the second quarter of the twenty-first century.
I can access every bit as much media and information as any USA citizen. All the laws, all the regulations, all the news.
Very noticeable, BTW, how you always attempt to attack the person rather than their actual claims.
How you never ever sustain any of your claims.
“There is plenty of gullibility in the Blue MAGA camp.”
I know the term used is an online pejorative label, but it’s very silly and inapposite.
MAGAs are not blue, else they would not be MAGA.
A bit like religious people claiming atheists are religious; they know it’s insulting and false and that they themselves are religious, but they do it anyway.
And StevoR is not one. You keep lying about him and speculating about him and whatnot.
You’re fine as long as you keep it at personal lies and insinuations, but the moment facts come into it, you flail.
(You yourself rely on gullibility when extruding your bullshit)
beholder you half-baked tit this is stupid even for you.
Yet your loyalty to Jill Stein is boundless you useful idiot. Enjoy the government you voted for.
@15 badland
??? Was “loyalty” the word you meant to use? It renders your doubtless-intended clever comeback a bit nonsensical. I’m less interested in brand-name loyalty and more interested in policy.
Jill Stein was merely the best choice on the ballot. If Stein wasn’t there I likely would have voted for the Party for Socialism and Liberation candidate instead.
Beholding the beholder is always amusing: “Jill Stein was merely the best choice on the ballot.”
Obviously yes, yes she was, if you wanted to waste your vote and have zero effect upon the Trump:Harris votes. Easier to not bother voting at all, same result exaCTLY.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_United_States_presidential_election#Results
(Donald Trump secured 312 electoral votes to Kamala Harris’s 226, while Jill Stein did not win any electoral votes. Thus, she was the best choice! Now, we have Trump as POTUS)
I myself ‘pretend to be’ from elsewhere on this planet all the time. My VPN enables me to acquire data I would not be otherwise able to. Does the quoted article specify that they are hacking the accounts and their method chosen to hack them, to verify where these accounts are actually from?
Cui bono from this article, either way? Is it the advertisers?
The entity called X pays those ‘verified’ accounts for engagement and broadened reach of advertising.
A few hundred or a thousand dollars a month is a good income in many of the countries named as the home of the loudest MAGA trolls.
Seachange
The news reported that X instituted a new feature that allows users to see the country of origin for verified accounts. The loudest maga supporters apparently live in Nigeria, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Russia, Bulgaria, and Eastern Europe.
Overstated, Tethys. The numbers don’t work, but they are hard to quantify.
My emphases:
But then, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/polling-shows-growing-number-republicans-identify-maga-movement-rcna201071
So, https://www.statista.com/statistics/273743/number-of-registered-voters-in-the-united-states/
.36*173.85=62.6 million MAGAs
The ratio therefore it 1:62 of followers.
—
(Your mistake was conflating the number of accounts with the number of followers)
I didn’t conflate any numbers at all. I merely noted that there is a profit motive for being a non-American maga troll influencer on X.
The worm has turned quite significantly since that poll in March. Between the Epstein files, shutdown, and the terrible economic policies (mere highlights in the list of incompetence exhibited by this admin) the rats are starting to scurry away from dear leader.
Fair enough. But clearly the overwhelming bulk of actual MAGAs are in the USA, it’s only those accounts that are outside.
‘The loudest maga supporters apparently live in Nigeria, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Russia, Bulgaria, and Eastern Europe.’ means that there are no louder ones in the USA.
Hyperbole, right? You can’t know that, and you’re stating that no MAGAs in the USA are louder than the external ones.
I bet the numbers are around the same ratio.
(Probably a power law distribution)
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‘The worm has turned quite significantly since that poll in March.’
Latest poll I could find quickly that was explicit about it.
(I like to sustain my claims via citations, unlike some)
I did quote earlier: ‘Many of the MAGA influencers outed as living in countries like Nigeria and Bangladesh have since vanished from X.’
(But good insight, reiterating that for my benefit)
@9. The Trump -Enabling, Bad Faith Troll (henceforth TTEBFT) : Your MO of automatically attacking the Democratic party whenever the topic is what the Repugs are doing is being criticised is , again, noted.
If someone’s response to any criticism of Repugs is to instead automatically attack the Democratic party ignoring the topic and alternative actually Fascist party then it is pretty clear which side of the two sides of USoA politics they actually support – and which side of the reichwing vs progressive divide they are on too.
It’s a key tell – one of many – that you “beholder” are indeed a bad faith troll and a not -so secret Trump supporter.
@11. TTEBFT : No such thing as “Blue MAGA” as already noted by others. Mutually contradictory and projection-confession by Repugs against Democratic parties voters.
Oh and I don’t “..punish party disloyalty (in my own, ok at times repetitive, way)” I call out those who actually hurt us all on this pale blue dot incalculably badly by arguing for and supporting Trump which you did – whether you acknowledge that honestly or not. (At this point dishonest troll beholder, you might as well just be honest for the first time ever here; you have been clearly exposed as what you are.)
It ain’t about being loyal to the Democratic party or not criticising them when criticism is due. It is about also seeing the alternative and criticising that and not helping the very worst of the worst be the enemy of the at least good & actual alternative to said worst of the very worst.
I might live on the other side of the Earth from you, bad faith troll but I can assure you – and I have proven that – my knowledge and understanding of USoA politics is far better than yours and that you, disingenuous troll that you are, either masquerade as or actually are a totally evil – in effect – klown. You being wilfully ignorant or pretending to be wilfully ignorant in thinking that a vote for Stein could be anything other than a vote for Trump and even worse arguing and advocating for voting third party spoilers here on this left wing blog (& almost certainly elsewhere) was doing anything than enabling and helping Trump and the outright Fascists and billionaires. You were warned, we have brought the citations, done the maths and provided the evidence and you, “beholder”, simply ignored and failed to address it all. Never even having the basic courtesy to answer direct questions put to you.
As for :
Prove to us that you haven’t been paying attention without just well, saying that you haven’t been paying attention.
Long before the final actually free and fair ~ish USoA election, I’ve been saying clearly and repeatedly that the way to fix the issue of third party spoilers like Stein, Nader, Perot etc .. is to have preferential voting or alternatively run-off elections a la France.
Oh and the ones being scammed here are those who support Stein whose whole fake ”presidential campaigns” were scams designed to help Trump – scams you either fell for badly or pretended to fall for, you contemptible toxic waste scraped from a shoe.
@16. TTEBFT :
In reality neither of those were realistically on the ballot.
You had two and only two choices – either Trump or Kamala.
Not voting for or supporting Kamala was de facto in effect, in reality voting for & supporting Trump which is what you’ve admitted to doing.
Kamala Harris was the only decent, ethical, rational, leftwing choice on the ballot.
Yet again, what part of that do you – and Silentbob – NOT understand? Assuming that you type in good faith which you’ve proven that you do not.
John
No, it means that on Twitter/X, the maga propaganda accounts that have the largest following and engagement have been revealed to be foreign nationals.
It doesn’t say anything about local maga accounts.
I don’t use Xitter, so I’m just repeating what the news had to say about this event. There is also apparently a trend on social media for maga supporters to make videos where they burn their hats and any paraphernalia they own while being disgusted with him. Epstein was their bridge too far. You might note that there was only a single no vote from both houses worth of legislators on the resolution to release the Epstein files.
Dems sweeping every election this November is making many GOP members very nervous, as they should be.
“No, it means that on Twitter/X, the maga propaganda accounts that have the largest following and engagement have been revealed to be foreign nationals.”
I gave you the numbers above; those (now mostly gone) accounts had around one million followers, the MAGA base is 62+ million. They can’t possibly have had the largest following, since the ones not outside the USA presumably service the rest of them.
You can’t extrapolate from Xitter to the population of the US. You can’t even extrapolate from the followers, since everyone seems to be lying on the internet for fun.
62 million is not a reliable number. The polling in the last two weeks shows dump underwater across every single demographic, and dropping.
(sigh)
Elon Musk has 229M followers, pretty MAGA
Trump has 109M followers, also MAGA.
Tucker Carlson, Mark Gaetz, Jim Jordan, Kari Lake, MTG, all have a million or more — they’re kinda MAGA.
But sure, all those foreign accounts with around 1M followers were the loudest and most influencial, by your reasoning.
Fox news has 26M (kinda MAGA, no?), Newsmax 3.4M, etc.
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’62 million is not a reliable number.’
I gave its basis, I gave 3 citations.
Dispute my sources, not me. With numbers, like me.
(Not like the math is complicated)
229 million followers doesn’t translate into actual MAGA voters. There are approximately 170 registered US voters divided between D, R, and Independents.
No idea where you get the idea that 62 million Americans are pro-maga, since that would include all of the Republicans and most Independents.
Independents in fact tend to be very anti-maga, so clearly that 62 million figure is wildly inaccurate.
Dang it. 170 million
“No idea where you get the idea that 62 million Americans are pro-maga, since that would include all of the Republicans and most Independents.”
I was most specific, I cited sources, I linked to them.
Yet you claim to have no idea.
#21:
My emphases:
But then, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/polling-shows-growing-number-republicans-identify-maga-movement-rcna201071
So, https://www.statista.com/statistics/273743/number-of-registered-voters-in-the-united-states/
.36*173.85=62.6 million MAGAs
—
Again, there are different scopes.
The number of accounts, in and out of USA.
The number of followers, ditto, for which the proportion of all voters is a proxy.
Then, of course, each follower may follow more than one account.
Generally does, the more MAGA, the more MAGA interest, no?
Anyway.
Since I was most explicit and unambiguous and yet you lacked an idea of the basis for my claim, I know where the problem lies.
I am incommunicado in places with rare internet coverage.
beholder @ 16, you silly little man:
Yes, you tit, I mirrored your language.
You fucking idiot. The best person on the ballot was the person who could have prevented Trump 2, not your wankfest of mediocrities. Vladimir gets value for roubles from the likes of you.
<
blockquote>Vladimir gets value for roubles from the likes of you. – badland@32,/blockquote>
Especially as my guess is that he doesn’t even have to pay beholder, who’s a classic “useful idiot”.