Twitter has blocked over 100 accounts who promoted the proRussian hashtag #IStandWithPutin. This is in an attempt by the tech company, to counter online misinformation by individuals and groups affiliated with Russia’s government.
The accounts were banned for violating Twitter’s “platform manipulation and spam policy,” A Twitter spokesperson spoke to NBC News on Friday.
According to The Associated Press research analysts at various organizations have noted these observations. “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 statementThat it plans to start labeling all links from state-backed Russian outlets shared on its platform. Twitter had previously made it clear that accounts connected to national governments would be labeled, such as RT or Sputnik, in accordance with its previous policy. Twitter stated that it supports the following: “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 stated that it would follow a similar policy with state-backed media outlets from countries other than the United States. “in the coming weeks.”Twitter didn’t immediately respond to a request for more comment.
