Twitter has banned over 100 accounts that pushed the pro-Russian hashtag #IStandWithPutin in an effort by the tech company to battle online misinformation by groups and individuals affiliated with the Russian government.
The accounts were banned for violating Twitter’s “platform manipulation and spam policy,” a Twitter spokesperson told NBC news on Friday.
According to The Associated Press, analysts at several research organizations noted “a sharp increase in online activity” by groups affiliated with Russia. The report said the activity was indicative of of Russia’s longtime strategy of “using social media and state-run outlets to galvanize domestic support while seeking to destabilize the Western alliance.”
Politico reported that “Russia-backed media reports falsely claiming that the Ukrainian government is conducting genocide of civilians ran unchecked and unchallenged on Twitter and on Facebook. Videos from the Russian government — including speeches from Vladimir Putin — on YouTube received dollars from Western advertisers. Unverified TikTok videos of alleged real-time battles were instead historical footage, including doctored conflict-zone images and sounds.”
Twitter Inc. said in a statement that it plans to start labeling all links from state-backed Russian outlets shared on its platform. As part of its previous policy, Twitter had added a label only to accounts linked to national governments, including as RT and Sputnik. In its statement, Twitter said that the “overwhelming majority” of content from state-backed Russian media — more than 45,000 tweets a day — is being tweeted by individuals rather than by institutions.
The social media service added that it would be applying a similar policy to state-backed media outlets from other countries “in the coming weeks.” Twitter did not immediately respond for a request for further comment from TheWrap.
