Twitter says it banned more than 200 Russia-linked propaganda accounts - The Verge

"Facing scrutiny from Congress, Twitter today disclosed that more than 200 Russia-linked accounts had been used to spread propaganda and misinformation on the company’s platform.



The news follows similar disclosures from Facebook, and Twitter points out that it found 22 accounts corresponding to those Facebook found. Additionally, Twitter found another 179 accounts. All of those accounts, Twitter said, had been or were soon banned, usually for violating spam rules. Unlike on Facebook, Twitter said the accounts it identified were not registered as advertisers.



Twitter’s blog post, while not quite directly attributing any activity to those accounts, discussed what the company does to combat issues like gaming Trending Topics and automating spam. The company noted that a large source of spam had historically been “Russia and other post-Soviet states,” but said it was “much trickier” tracking activity coordinated by humans.



The company said that, over coming months, it will be introducing new ways to detect malicious activity, although it did not provide specifics. “These are not meant to be definitive solutions,” the company said in the post. “We’ve been fighting against these issues for years, and as long as there are people trying to manipulate Twitter, we will be working hard to stop them.”



Twitter says it banned more than 200 Russia-linked propaganda accounts - The Verge