Leftist candidate Gustavo Petro has more fans and followers on social media than his three main rivals in Colombia’s presidential race combined.
The former mayor of Bogota is particularly popular on Twitter, where he reaches more than 2.9 million people.
Candidates’ popularity on social media
This doesn’t make Petro the most popular politician on social media; Former President Alvaro Uribe and outgoing President Juan Manuel Santos have 5 million and 5.3 million followers on Twitter respectively.
The popularity of Petro and the other candidates are inflated by “fake” fans created automatically by, for example, bots.
According to conservative newspaper El Colombiano, 40% of Petro’s followers on Twitter are fake. This is two points more than former Vice-President German Vargas, five points more than former Medellin Mayor Sergio Fajardo and 24 points more than former Senator Ivan Duque, according to the newspaper.
