Back on October 9th, FTVLive did a story on WPLG buying fake followers for their Twitter account.

The station gained 50,000 twitter followers in just one day.

It seems that WPLG was caught trying to pad their Twitter numbers.

But not so fast says WPLG.

In a story the station broadcasted last night, they said that the fake followers they purchased was for a sweeps story.

FTVLive is not that quick to believe WPLG or News Director Bill Pohovey. The station's report shows how they were able to purchase the followers for just a few hundred bucks.

But, why would you buy the fake followers for the station's account? Why not, for example, use a station employee or intern's account?

Say you have an intern that has just a couple of hundred followers and you add 100,000 in just a few days. Doesn't that do the same thing (or better) that using the station's official account?

We have a feeling that WPLG got caught redhanded buying followers and then used last night's story to cover it up. We can't prove that's what they did, but let's call it a hunch.

By the way, at the end of WPLG's story they said they were going to get rid of all those fake followers they purchased. But, this morning, they had the same some of followers as they did during last night's story.

I guess breaking up, even with fake followers is hard to do.

Here's WPLG's cover up.....errrrrrrr......story on buying their fake followers: