Twitter Blocks Over 200 Russia-Linked Accounts

Twitter has blocked 201 accounts with suspected Russian links responsible for spreading fake news in the 2016 US presidential election.

In a statement released by the company on Thursday, Twitter said it carried out an investigation into over 450 accounts shared by Facebook after the social network conducted a similar investigation.

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Following the development, the online news and social networking service said it discovered that the accounts broke the company rules.

The company noted that a large source of spam had historically been from “Russia and other post-Soviet states,” but said it was “much trickier” tracking activity coordinated by humans.

Twitter also identified $274,000 of advertising bought in 2016 by broadcaster Russia Today “which has strong links to the Russian government.”

The company said that, over the coming months, it will be introducing new ways to detect malicious activity.

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“These are not meant to be definitive solutions, 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,” the statement reads.

Facebook said weeks back that it sold about $100,000 in political ads purchased out of Russia that were aimed at influencing the US election.

Twitter and Facebook testified behind closed doors at a US senate intelligence committee on Thursday, as part of investigations on alleged Russian meddling with the November 8 US presidential election.

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