Twitter suspends 16 accounts of fake personas linked to propaganda campaign in Middle East

Twitter has suspended 16 accounts found to be part of a network of fake personas spreading propaganda about Middle East countries through opinion pieces on different new outlets. A Twitter spokesperson reportedly said in a statement that the social media firm works to identify platform manipulation on the platform using technology, human review and partnerships with researchers and other independent organisations.

According to international media reports, the spokesperson said that the firm will disclose any activity to a state-backed information operation if it has reasonable evidence against it. The opinion pieces were carried by conservative publications including Newsmax Washington Examiner Jerusalem Post, Real Clear Media, a Daily Beast report found. The photograph used by the authors were of real people, passing them off as someone different without their knowledge or consent. 

In June, Twitter removed 32,242 accounts operating from China, Russia, and Turkey, found to be spread state-backed political propaganda. The micro-blogging platform found out that approximately 150,000 accounts operating from China were designed to boost the content of 23,750 accounts. 

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'Manipulative activities'

Twitter reportedly said that the entire network was involved in a range of manipulative and coordinated activities and they were tweeting predominantly in Chinese languages and spreading geopolitical narratives favourable to the Communist Party of China (CCP) while continuing to push deceptive narratives about the political dynamics in Hong Kong.

The social media firm investigated accounts associated with Current Policy, a media website engaging in state-backed political propaganda within Russia. A network of accounts related to this media operation was suspended for violations of Twitter’s platform manipulation policy, specifically cross-posting and amplifying content in an inauthentic, coordinated manner for political ends.

Twitter’s platform manipulation can take many forms including commercially-motivated spam, that typically aims to drive traffic or attention from a conversation on Twitter to accounts, websites, products, services, or initiatives. It also includes coordinated activity, that attempts to artificially influence conversations through the use of multiple accounts, fake accounts, automation and/or scripting.

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