Twitter removes accounts linked to Saudi, Egypt, Honduras

Twitter removes accounts (Another operation by the Safety team)

San Francisco on Thursday 2 April 2020, Twitter Inc removes thousands of accounts linked to Saudi Arabia & Egypt.

Twitter removes accounts amplifying messaging critical of Iran, Qatar, and Turkey, among others.

Twitter has removed accounts from five countries.

Egypt
Honduras
Indonesia
Saudi Arabia
Serbia

According to Twitter Inc, The accounts which were suspended were taking directions from governments or promoting pro-government content. The company said, that we have taken down over 2541 accounts in the Egypt-based El Fagr network because it created “inauthentic accounts to amplify messaging critical of Iran, Qatar, and Turkey”.

https://twitter.com/TwitterSafety/status/1245682441865646080

https://twitter.com/TwitterSafety/status/1245682431975460864

https://twitter.com/TwitterSafety/status/1245682443241259010

The company also removed 5,350 accounts associated with Saudi Arabia and operating out of multiple countries including the kingdom, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Detail Incident Report

The company removed 3,104 fake accounts created from a single IP range in Honduras by a group that was supported by the government and the group had permission to retweet the president’s account. (The group was working on behalf of the Honduran government).

An investigation that followed a report by investigative website Bellingcat on an Indonesian information operation targeting the West Papuan independence movement resulted in the removal of 795 fake accounts.

8,558 accounts from Serbia were also suspended by Twitter and not only the users but the leader of the Serbian party accounts was removed too.

The company said it took the actions because the accounts violated its policies and represented a targeted attempt to undermine the public conversation.