This just isn’t Justin Bieber’s week. In addition to all the negative press he’s received lately, it now appears the Biebs may not be the “King of Twitter” afterall!

A new report suggests that HALF of the Boyfriend singer’s Twitter followers are composed of fake or empty accounts.

The research – conducted by social media statistics company, SocialBakers, found that an estimated 16.7 million of the Canadian pop star’s 37m strong Twitter fan base were basically phantom followers, with another 2.6 million being inactive, according to businessinsider.com.