TWITTER DROPS FAKE FOLLOWERS; KALASHO’S FOLLOWERS SHRINK BY OVER HALF
By Miriam Raftery
July 14, 2018 (El Cajon) – Yesterday, El Cajon Councilman Ben Kalasho posted on Twitter, “Just blocked over 3,000 `reporters and so-called journalists’ from my twitter. Only accepting real people. No snooping snakes. Honest reporters welcome.”
Fact check: Kalasho’s announcement comes the same day that Twitter dropped tens of millions of fake followers in an effort to halt fraud on social media, the Atlantic Journal Constitution reports: https://www.ajc.com/news/national/twitter-removes-fake-accounts-users-may-see-drop-followers/Qk4eCHLsFaiiMJBfwocZCN/.
Kalasho’s site currently lists him with 2,665 presumably real followers remaining after the purge by Twitter of fake followers, so it appears more than half of his original “followers” were fake.
Meanwhile, our own Twitter feed count stands at 2,944 followers combined for our EastCountyMag and EastCountyAlert Twitter accounts—and our numbers have actually grown in recent days thanks to genuine followers who appreciate our coverage of real news such as the Alpine wildfire and Councilman Kalasho’s war on media members reporting on his ethical and legal challenges.
Previously found by a jury to have committed fraud, Kalasho is currently embroiled in a civil suit in which a judge deemed evidence “true” and admissible that Kalasho sexually harassed young women, destroyed taped evidence, tried to coerce a woman into having sex with him to win a beauty pageant, and took out many fake I.D.s on Facebook to defame a taco shop owner. He’s also defamed and harassed reporters from multiple publications including ECM reporter Paul Kruze, who filed a police report accusing Kalasho of threatening him with an attack dog.
Apparently, some media outlets are more popular on Twitter today than a politician with a history of fraud and his dog.