Read on Twitter
We suspended five Twitter accounts for platform manipulation that we can reliably attribute to Russian state actors. As standard, they will be included in updates to our database of information operations in the coming weeks to empower academic research. https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/platform-manipulation
The accounts purported to be associated with a website called PeaceData, which publishes a range of content about global political issues. At least some of the content published on the website was created by real people who appear to have contributed to PeaceData as freelancers.
The Tweets from the Russian-linked accounts were low quality and spammy, and most Tweets from these accounts received few, if any, Likes or Retweets.
The accounts achieved little impact on Twitter and were identified and removed quickly.
The accounts achieved little impact on Twitter and were identified and removed quickly.
Going forward, links to content from PeaceData’s site will be blocked from being shared on our service. Existing links will be de-amplified across the service in accordance with our policies detailed here: https://help.twitter.com/en/safety-and-security/phishing-spam-and-malware-links#:~:text=Overview&text=At%20times%2C%20Twitter%20will%20take,t%20be%20Tweeted%20at%20all
https://help.twitter.com/en/safety-and-security/phishing-spam-and-malware-links#:~:text=Overview&text=At%20times%2C%20Twitter%20will%20take,t%20be%20Tweeted%20at%20all
We wish to express our gratitude to the @FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force for their close collaboration and continued support of our work to protect the public conversation at this critical time. https://twitter.com/Policy/status/1293632898294259714
Regardless of the low-level impact in this case, governments around the world must stop these practices. They’re antidemocratic. Attempts to manipulate our service to undermine democracy — by both foreign and domestic actors — will be met with strict enforcement of our policies.
For more on our work to remove state-linked information operations from Twitter, please see our new Twitter Transparency Center, which links to our public archive of previously removed activity — the only one of its kind in the industry. https://transparency.twitter.com/en/reports/information-operations.html
