Did you hear? Nearly half of Justin Bieber’s Twitter followers are fake. Fake! Belieber nation is a fraud, life has no meaning, the abyss of treachery and betrayal that is life grows deeper by the hour.
But wait! Surely other celebrity Twitter accounts aren’t afflicted by this unforgivable deceit. Right? Actually… most of them are even worse.
The Bieber-damning numbers that shook Canadian pop this week came from Prague-based analytics firm Socialbakers, and you can see their full results here. For our analysis, we decided to get a second opinion from Status People’s Fake Follower Check, because we’ve been able to independently verify its accuracy in the past.
Here’s whose followers are fake, inactive, or real-live human people — and in what quantity. Rankings are most to least imaginary friends.
1. Katy Perry
Total Followers: 34,979,652
Total Fakes: 17,140,029
Total Fakes + Inactives: 27,284,129
2. Lady Gaga
Total Followers: 36,141,527
Total Fakes: 16,986,518
Total Fakes + Inactives: 28,190,391
3. Barack Obama
Total Followers: 29,817,431
Total Fakes: 14,908,716
Total Fakes + Inactives: 23,555,770
4. Taylor Swift
Total Followers: 26,249,754
Total Fakes: 13,912,370
Total Fakes + Inactives: 21,262,301
5. Britney Spears
Total Followers: 25,683,941
Total Fakes: 11,814,613
Total Fakes + Inactives: 20,033,474
6. Rihanna
Total Followers: 29,204,420
Total Fakes: 11,681,768
Total Fakes + Inactives: 19,274,917
7. Justin Bieber
Total Followers: 37,530,447
Total Fakes: 10,133,221
Total Fakes + Inactives: 21,767,659
8. Justin Timberlake
Total Followers: 18,874,584
Total Fakes: 9,437,292
Total Fakes + Inactives: 15,099,667
9. Shakira
Total Followers: 20,386,662
Total Fakes: 8,766,265
Total Fakes + Inactives: 15,086,130
Top photo via AP