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I. TECHNOLOGY

16 A third of US social media users creating fake accounts

Fake social media accounts are usually associated with bot networks, but some research released Tuesday revealed many social media users are creating their own fake accounts for a variety of reasons.

According to a survey of 1,500 American social media users by USCasinos.com, one in three social media users in the US has numerous accounts on the social media networks they frequent. Nearly half (48%) of individuals with multiple accounts have two or more additional accounts.

The most common justifications given for opening extra accounts are to “express my opinions without being criticised” (mentioned by 41% of people) and “spy on someone else’s profile” (38%).

Other reasons for creating false accounts include “improving my chances of winning online contests” (13%), “increasing the likes, followers, and other metrics on my real account” (5%), “to fool others” (2.6%), and “to scam others” (0.4%).

Respondents were asked where they were making their fake accounts, and the top three responses were Twitter (41%), Facebook (31%), and Instagram (28%). Will Duffield, a policy analyst with the Cato Institute, a Washington, D.C.- based think tank, explained that this was the case because Twitter is significantly more open by default.

He told TechNewsWorld that Twitter power users frequently have many accounts, inc