Roughly 14 per cent of Nicola Sturgeon’s one million followers are likely to be fake accounts

Leading politicians in Scotland are being followed by hundreds of fake Twitter accounts, it is claimed.

Researchers found that one in seven followers may be false. Nearly 800 accounts following Nicola Sturgeon, the first minister, her deputy John Swinney and Jo Swinson, the Liberal Democrat leader, are suspected “bots” — automated profiles that retweet content.

Teams at Birmingham and Reading universities tracked 7,000 followers, and found that 14 per cent of the most recent of Ms Sturgeon’s one million Twitter followers were likely to be fake.

Social media companies are on high alert for “fake news”, which often comes from bots, before the general election and next year’s US presidential election, amid concerns that voters have been swayed by anonymous accounts run by hostile states