- The Washington Times - Friday, June 16, 2017

Katy Perry has become the first person to reach 100 million followers on Twitter, Entertainment Weekly reported Friday.

To mark the occasion, Twitter is celebrating with a special emoji — 100M written in white inside a red heart — that pops up when you tweet #LoveKaty.

Of course, many of her followers may not be flesh-and-blood human beings but bots. 

A study two years ago using Twitter Audit found that 65 percent of Miss Perry’s following was likely phony, AdWeek reported. In the two years since, that number has only slightly improved. As of June 16, Twitter Audit estimates 62.2 percent of her following to be fake.

By contrast, Presdient Trump, a prolific tweeter who has claimed to have 100 million followers on social media — it’s actually just 32.4 million on Twitter  — enjoys a much better Twitter Audit score. Some 63 percent of the president’s followers are real.

• Ken Shepherd can be reached at kshepherd@washingtontimes.com.

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