Twitter removes 3,000 state-backed accounts from 6 countries

Another 3,465 state-backed accounts were removed by Twitter, as part of efforts to limit the influence of information manipulation campaigns on the web.

“Every account and piece of content associated with these operations has been permanently removed from the service,” Twitter said.

As such, what was revealed while listing out the operations is that the majority of accounts removed were linked to China, with over 2,000 of them amplifying Chinese Communist Party narratives related to the treatment of the Uyghur population in Xinjiang, according to a blog post by the social media giant.

it has added that the account sets that have been removed include eight “distinct operations” that can be attributed to China, Mexico, Russia, Tanzania, Uganda, and Venezuela. In addition, another network of around 100 accounts were connected to “Changyu Culture,” a private company backed by the Xinjiang regional government.

Therefore, the linked accounts removed were related to top three governments: the Ugandan government, which had 418 of its linked accounts that used inauthentic activity to support having the Ugandan presidential incumbent Museveni removed, while 277 Venezuelan accounts amplifying accounts and content that supported the presiding government were removed.

On the other hand, Twitter has shared relevant data from this disclosure with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, Cazadores de Fake News, and the Stanford Internet Observatory. The company also said it will start the Twitter moderation research consortium in early 2022 to study platform governance issues.

This procedure comes after Twitter’s founder Jack Dorsey resigned as the company’s CEO, while the company announced on Wednesday the expansion of its private information policy to include the sharing of private media, such as photos and videos, without permission from the individuals that are depicted in them.