On Wednesday, Shah Rukh Khan raced ahead of Amitabh Bachchan in the Twitter game. Earlier, Amitabh Bachchan was the second most followed Indian personality on Twitter (after PM Narendra Modi) with about 32.8 million followers. Shah Rukh Khan over took Bachchan on Wednesday with a following that totalled to 32.9 million.
While this was widely reported as SRK having beat Bachchan on Twitter, the senior actor seems to think that there has been a mysterious dip in his number of followers. Big B who uses Twitter very regularly to post pictures and updates about his day to day activities seemed miff about his number of followers being suddenly reduced and threatened to quit the social media platform over it.
But it seems Amitabh Bachchan’s Twitter could have fallen victim to Twitter’s clean up act over fake followers. A report in New York Times states that several entertainers, entrepreneurs, athletes and media personalities who “bought Twitter followers” or “artificial engagement” have been hit. Here’s an excerpt from the report:
“More than a million followers have disappeared from the accounts of dozens of prominent Twitter users in recent days as the company faces growing criticism over the proliferation of fake accounts and scrutiny from federal and state inquiries into the shadowy firms that sell fake followers.The people losing followers include an array of entertainers, entrepreneurs, athletes and media figures, many of whom bought Twitter followers or artificial engagement from a company called Devumi.”New York Times
As of now both SRK and Bachchan have 32.9 million followers - this picture posted by the star (from his film Hum) of Bachchan having a bad guy by his throat seems to have helped!
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)