Twitter deletes nearly 4800 accounts linked to the Iranian government

Twitter has removed 4,779 profiles linked to or directly controlled by the Iranian government. According to the microblogging site, these included accounts that engaged in discussions about Israel or published fake news that worked out favorably for the Iranian state.

Twitter classified the suspended profiles into three groups. The first set includes 1,666 accounts from Iran that sent a total of about two million messages. “These were news reports that often favored the diplomatic and geostrategic view of the Iranian state. Such manipulation is a violation of our guidelines,” said Yoel Roth, head of integrity at Twitter. a blog post.

The second group involved 248 accounts from Iran who directly intervened in discussions related to Israel. The third and final group consisted of 2,865 Iranian profiles of non-existent individuals who sent messages about political and social global issues and Iran affairs.

In addition to the thousands of Iranian accounts, Twitter also deleted 130 Spanish profiles. According to Yoel Roth, they were directly linked to the Catalan independence movement, and in particular to the political party Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya. Their main purpose was to disseminate information about the Catalan referendum. “The network included fake accounts that appeared to be created to influence the conversation in an inorganic way,” Roth said.

This is not the first time that Twitter has removed accounts that violate the site’s rules of conduct through tweets. In February, the company announced that since September 2018 it has suspended more than 2,600 profiles linked to Iran, as well as 418 accounts linked to the Russian Internet Research Agency.