50 pc of Justin Bieber`s Twitter followers `fake`

London: Justin Bieber`s title as ‘King of Twitter’ has been brought into question after it was revealed that almost half of his followers on the micro blogging site could be fake.

In a report that was carried out by social media statistics company, SocialBakers, an estimated 16.7 million of the singer`s 37 million strong Twitter fan base was said to be composed of fake or empty accounts, with another 2.6 million being inactive, the Telegraph reported. The research has demoted Bieber, 19, to the second place, behind Lady Gaga, in the rankings of highest number of Twitter followers. The teenage icon had overtaken the 27-year-old singer earlier this year. The research classified Twitter followers as either "good", "fake" or "inactive" by picking out those accounts that had fewer than a certain number of followers and who themselves followed a low number of users. ANI