CNN is being haunted by the very social media platform that it has incessantly accused President Donald Trump of exploiting, as Twitter Audit announced that the “fake news” giant has more than 17 million “fake” Twitter followers.

In addition to its credibility problems after declaring war on Trump during his presidential campaign last year, the beleaguered Leftist news hub boasts 17 million more Twitter followers than it really has, according to Twitter Audit, which is in the business of sorting out how many phony Twitter followers companies and personalities have, compared to real ones.

“Each audit takes a sample of up to 5,000 [or more] Twitter followers for a user and calculates a score for each follower,” Twitter Audit explained. “This score is based on number of tweets, date of the last tweet, and ratio of followers to friends.”

You don’t have to spend to make friends …

The analytics group is one of be best determiners of revealing whether organizations and/or celebrities are legitimate Twitter superstars … or just frauds.

“We use these scores to determine whether any given user is real or fake,” Twitter Audit continued. “This scoring method is not perfect, but it is a good way to tell if someone with lots of followers is likely to have increased their follower count by inorganic, fraudulent or dishonest means.”

It was calculated that nearly half of all CNN Twitter followers are fake – an unprecedented proportion among major news hubs.

“[With 17 million ‘fake’ Twitter followers,] that’s a full 48 percent of all of CNN’s followers,” WND reported. “And, according to a WND analysis, CNN is the worst offender of all prominent news organization hashtags.”

The number of one’s Twitter followers can vary and be manipulated in a number of ways.

“It’s unclear what percentage of the ‘fake’ followers are simply inactive Twitter users who followed the accounts but are no longer tweeting on the site,” WND clarified.” A number of factors can affect the score, such as natural drop-off or churn rates.”

In fact, gurus on technology trends have been saying for years that fashioning one’s own social media following is as easy as pulling out one’s wallet.

“You can purchase 1,000 Twitter followers for just $12,” CNET reported in March 2015. “That’s right: if you’re willing to drop some cash, you can be a bonafide Twitter celeb in less than a week.”

It appears that in an attempt to buy “credibility,” CNN actually lessened its credibility.

“It doesn’t matter whether you have 20 or 2,000 followers – you always want more, because more followers means more credibility, more social networking clout, and, yeah, a bigger boost to your ego,” CNET’s Sarah Jacobsson Purewal informed. “Building a Twitter following takes time and effort, and it can be tempting to try to take a shortcut to Twitter fame. But this is a bad idea because it’s against the rules (yes, Twitter has rules), and, if people find out you’re faking your Twitter following, you’ll lose all credibility – instantly.”

More fakers on Left than Right

As seen below, it can be assessed that besides Fox News’ Twitter hashtag @FoxNews, which has nearly 7 million fake followers – 47 percent of its Twitter followers – virtually all of the biggest offenders are found in the Left-leaning mainstream media organizations.

Here are the news outlets revealed by Twitter Audit with hashtags boasting the highest rates of fake followers on their Twitter accounts, as broken down by WND into two groups:

• ABC News – 47 percent
• New York Times – 46 percent
• Huffington Post – 41 percent
• Wall Street Journal – 40 percent
• Reuters – 40 percent
• Associated Press – 36 percent
• Washington Post – 36 percent
• Daily Mail – 35 percent
• CBS News – 35 percent
• NBC News – 34 percent

Below Is a listing of major conservative-leaning news outlets, which have registered substantially lower fake Twitter follower percentages:

• Breitbart News – 4 percent
• Newsbusters – 6 percent
• WND – 8 percent
• Washington Times – 12 percent
• Hot Air – 15 percent
• National Review Online – 16 percent
• Newsmax – 16 percent
• Townhall – 23 percent
• Daily Caller – 30 percent

Fake followers follow fake news

Besides inflating its social media numbers, CNN has been reported numerous times in recent weeks and months padding the way it presents the Left to America.

“[Last month, CNN] misreported an emotional moment before the Congressional Baseball Game, tweeting that it was only Democrats who knelt for prayer on the field,” WND’s Chelsea Schilling noted. “Also, a CNN producer was caught on hidden camera admitting the network’s focus on allegations that Trump’s election campaign colluded with Russia is mostly for ratings, noting his mostly liberal audience wouldn’t have to put up with that kind of treatment of former President Obama.”

Because of its ongoing war against the president, CNN has increasingly become a major focus of negative news itself.

“It was also reported Monday that three CNN employees handed in their resignations over a retracted story linking Trump to Russia,” Schilling added.

CNN’s targeting of Trump over the past year became so intense that he declared CNN “fake news” multiple times, and after moving into the White House, he restricted his officials from appearing on the Leftist cable news giant, which has seen a great decline in numbers of late.

“I don’t watch CNN,” Trump proclaimed, according to WND. “I don’t like watching fake news.”

From his pre-Oval Office days to his recently declared foreign policy fighting communism last month, CNN has relentlessly sparred with Trump while attacking his conservative politics – regularly walking away from the tussles with more bruises than the president.

“Before his inauguration as president, Trump got into a now-famous confrontation with CNN’s Jim Acosta when the president-elect refused to take a question from the reporter, while blasting CNN as ‘fake news,’” Schilling recounted. “On June 17, the network defended communist Cuba and blasted the president for reversing former President Obama’s deal with the nation. Trump said he is restricting American travel to the island, cutting back on the flow of U.S. cash to Cuba’s military and insisting on key reforms in Havana.”