Twitter has permanently suspended 373 accounts allegedly affiliated with the governments of Russia, Iran, and Armenia. Twitter claimed that the suspended accounts violated various of its policies, particularly the manipulation policy.
On Tuesday, Twitter announced it had removed hundreds of accounts it alleged are run by state-affiliated networks in Iran, Russia, and Armenia.
“State-affiliated networks from Russia, Armenia, and a previously disclosed network from Iran have all been removed from the service,” the platform tweeted and shared a link to a blog post explaining the removal.
According to the blog post, Twitter suspended 238 accounts affiliated with Iran for violating its manipulation policy. The platform had previously suspended 130 accounts from Iran in October for attempting to interfere with the public discussions of the first 2020 Presidential Debate. However, at the time, Twitter said that the accounts “had low engagement and did not make an impact on the public conversation.”
Twitter also suspended 100 hundred accounts run by two separate networks linked to the Russian government. The first network, which also appeared to be affiliated with the IRA (the Russian company accused of interfering with the 2016 presidential election), was running 31 accounts that were targeting the European Union and the US.
From Reuters:
“Twitter said 100 accounts with Russian ties were removed for amplifying narratives that undermined faith in NATO and targeted the United States and the European Union.”
The 35 accounts the company removed associated with the Armenian government were targeting Azerbaijan, and were banned for violating the platform’s manipulation policy. Twitter claims the accounts “were created to advance narratives that were targeting Azerbaijan and were geostrategically favorable to the Armenian government.”
“In some cases, the fake accounts purported to represent government and political figures in Azerbaijan, as well as news entities claiming to operate in Azerbaijan,” Twitter added.
