{"url":"https://koinonlink.com/research/fake-follower-rate-by-platform","lang":"en","kind":"research","title":"We screened 95,577 creator accounts: Threads has the highest share of suspected inflated followers at 15.5%","description":"A measured comparison across 10 platforms and 95,577 accounts: share of suspected inflated accounts and average authenticity by platform. Threads ranks highest at 15.5%, with a follower-tier breakdown and full methodology.","last_updated":"2026-09-20","structured_data":[{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","headline":"We screened 95,577 creator accounts: Threads has the highest share of suspected inflated followers at 15.5%","description":"A measured comparison across 10 platforms and 95,577 accounts: share of suspected inflated accounts and average authenticity by platform. Threads ranks highest at 15.5%, with a follower-tier breakdown and full methodology.","inLanguage":"en","datePublished":"2026-09-20","dateModified":"2026-09-20","author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Koinon Link"},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Vessel AI Lab Hongkong"},"mainEntityOfPage":"https://koinonlink.com/research/fake-follower-rate-by-platform"},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","inLanguage":"en","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"Which platform has the most inflated creator followings?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"In our sample of 95,577 accounts, Threads has the highest share of suspected inflated accounts at 15.5%; the lowest platform sits under 1%. This is our own detection, not a platform-official flag."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"How is \"suspected inflated\" determined?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"From whether follower growth arrived in vertical steps, whether the engagement-to-follower ratio sits far outside the normal band for that platform and size tier, and how templated the engagement looks. It means \"worth a manual check\", not confirmed fraud."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Are bigger accounts more likely to be inflated?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Broken down on Threads: 1M+ followers 0.0%, 100K–1M 4.2%, 10K–100K 6.1%, Under 10K 19.5%."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Are flagged accounts deleted?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"No. They are moved out of default results and labelled separately so budget does not flow to bought audiences. Detection can be wrong, so the data is kept and can be reviewed manually."}}]}],"related":[{"title":"The Creator Index Report 2026: what 95,577 creator profiles actually look like","url":"https://koinonlink.com/research/creator-index-report"},{"title":"How AI crawlers access creator data: 255,028 requests measured over 30 days","url":"https://koinonlink.com/research/how-ai-crawlers-access-creator-data"},{"title":"The hidden cost of creator outreach: 24.2% of X (Twitter) creators publish contact details — on 3 platforms almost none do","url":"https://koinonlink.com/research/creator-contactability-by-platform"},{"title":"After analysing 17,222 \"AI creators\": 35.5% have audiences that are general consumers, not practitioners","url":"https://koinonlink.com/research/who-actually-follows-ai-creators"},{"title":"The hidden overlap in multi-platform outreach: 1,466 accounts are really 693 people","url":"https://koinonlink.com/research/same-creator-across-platforms"},{"title":"Only 7.8% reach decision makers: audience seniority across 17,144 AI creators","url":"https://koinonlink.com/research/ai-creator-audience-seniority"},{"title":"Creator engagement-rate benchmarks: measured on 9,559 accounts — Xiaohongshu (RED) median 8.18%, 34× the X (Twitter) median","url":"https://koinonlink.com/research/engagement-rate-benchmarks-by-platform"},{"title":"Creator rate benchmarks from real engagement on 1,172 accounts: fair ranges by follower tier, fully recomputable","url":"https://koinonlink.com/research/creator-rate-benchmarks"},{"title":"31,919 audience personas measured: follower count is not audience quality","url":"https://koinonlink.com/research/audience-value-vs-follower-count"}],"license":"CC BY 4.0","citation":"Koinon Link (2026). We screened 95,577 creator accounts: Threads has the highest share of suspected inflated followers at 15.5%. Data as of 2026-09-20. https://koinonlink.com/research/fake-follower-rate-by-platform","provenance":{"source":"Koinon Link (koinonlink.com)","publisher":"Vessel AI Lab Hongkong","licence":"CC BY 4.0 — attribution with a link to the source page required","method":"Measured over the Koinon Link index of creator accounts. Not a random sample of any platform: collection is keyword-driven and skews toward software, gaming and e-commerce.","refresh":{"aggregate_statistics":"Aggregate pages are regenerated at least daily; /data/*.json is computed per request over the current index.","fair_score_and_grade":"Recomputed every 24 hours over already-stored observations. A fresh score does NOT mean a fresh observation.","creator_profile_observation":"NOT on a fixed schedule. A creator profile is re-observed only when that account resurfaces in keyword-driven collection, which is capped by a daily API budget. Large accounts on active keywords are re-seen often; the long tail is not. Read freshness.profile_checked_days_ago on every entity or candidate — never assume it is current.","audience_inference":"Re-inferred once the stored persona is older than the persona TTL and budget allows. The TTL is a floor, not a guarantee."},"authenticity_note":"\"suspected_inflated\" is our own screening outcome, computed from a SINGLE profile snapshot: engagement-to-follower ratio where post engagement was collected, otherwise the following/follower ratio, account age, posting volume and platform verification. We do not track follower growth over time. It means \"worth a manual check\", not confirmed fraud. The input set differs by platform (some platforms fall back to a fixed default), so authenticity scores are NOT comparable across platforms.","privacy_note":"Creator entities (identity, reach, inferred audience, evidence) are public. Contact details are never exposed. Creators who requested removal are excluded entirely."}}