The Hill News

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's (R-Ga.) presidential campaign Wednesday lashed out at reports that his Twitter following was artificially inflated, calling that allegation a "lie" and a "smear."

A Gingrich spokesman lashed out at suggestions that Gingrich's 1.3 million Twitter followers weren't obtained legitimately.

"At no time has the campaign or Gingrich Communications employed an outside group to inflate the number of followers of @newtgingrich," said R.C. Hammond, a spokesman for the former Speaker. "Any accusation of the kind is a lie, a smear and unsubstantiated."

The Gingrich campaign's dispute stems from a couple of posts on the website Gawker this week, which, citing a nameless former staffer, said that Gingrich had hired a firm! to boost his following. A followup post suggested that just over 100,000 followers were obtained naturally.

"Twitter's addition of @newtgingrich to the Suggested User List is responsible for a large, but indeterminable amount of followers," Hammond said. "Twitter users follow Newt they same way they elect to follow Ashton Kutcher, Shaquille O’Neil or John McCain. Twitter alone is the authority on counting followers and policing their legitimacy."

The scrutiny of Gingrich's Twitter following is driven in part by the candidate's insistence that the number of followers he enjoys is a metric of his campaign's strength.