(Image Source: Gawker)

BY DANNY MATTESON

You're watching multisource politics video analysis from Newsy. 

GOP presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich has more than twice as many Twitter followers as Sarah Palin.
But are the numbers legit? Maybe not.
In an interview with Gawker -- an anonymous former Gingrich staffer had this to say about the candidate’s social media swagger.

”Newt employs a variety of agencies whose sole purpose is to procure Twitter followers for people who are shallow/insecure/unpopular enough to pay for them. As you might guess, Newt is most decidedly one of the people to which these agencies cater.”

And, noting that Gingrich’s 1.3 million followers dwarfs the numbers of some of his strongest competitors, New York Daily news seems to agree something fishy may be afoot.

“...his 2012 opponents are on another level altogether: Michele Bachmann barely has 66,000 followers while Mitt Romney has yet to clear 63,000.”

The Gingrich camp denies the Twittergate allegations outright. His press secretary tweeted this in response to the story.

“@Gawker Gaffes. Hoodwinks readers. Insults 1.3 million .@newtgingrich .@twitter followers. Report is #rude #unfounded & #erroneous.”
 

But according to social media analytics site PeekYou -- the claim may not be so unfounded. CNET explains.

“PeekYou claims to use a specialized algorithm that examines a variety of details about each Twitter account...The research company believes that Gingrich's real follower count is closer to 106,055, based on its findings, meaning that potentially 1.2 million of his followers are fake.”

And Time’s Techland blog puts the numbers into context.

“Newt's numbers are way out of the ordinary – even for a politician. While about 8% of his followers are real, other politicians were deemed to have anywhere from 20% to 30% of ‘real’ followers. In comparison, the average Twitter user, like you and me, have anywhere from 35% to 60% real people following them.”
 

Still, writers at Politico believe there may be a reasonable explanation for all this.

“Gingrich was over a million followers well before the campaign existed or had staff, for the simple reason that he was one of the chosen on Twitter's official ‘Suggested User List.’ Other politicians over a million from that California-heavy list range from Gavin Newsom to Al Gore.”  

Finally, what pithy political tiff would be complete without commentary from Stephen Colbert. The pseudo-pundit had this to say about the issue. 

“What?! His Twitter followers aren’t real? Are you telling me that today’s youth don’t fancy a 68 year old, semi-employed former politician who tweets such gems as ‘Had great lunch at Mabe’s Pizza’ and ‘Stopped in for lunch at the Pizza Shack’?”

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