Twitter Suspends Thousands of Accounts For Spreading Fake News Across Globe

Twitter has suspended as many as 4,258 accounts which it said were used in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Published: September 20, 2019 6:05 PM IST

By India.com News Desk | Edited by Manmath Nayak

Twitter Suspends Thousands of Accounts For Spreading Fake News Across Globe
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New Delhi: With an objective to stop spreading of fake news, the microblogging site Twitter on Friday announced that it has closed down thousands of accounts across the world which were responsible for spreading fake news as well as pro-government propaganda in countries such as United Arab Emirates, China, and Spain.

Twitter has suspended as many as 4,258 accounts which it said were used in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). These accounts were using fake names and most of the tweets were about Qatar and Yemen. Reports suggested that Twitter has removed 267 accounts in the UAE and Egypt which were spreading multi-faceted information targeting Qatar and Iran.

Earlier, the social media platform had closed accounts in China which were expressing discord among protesters in Hong Kong. It had also closed accounts which were amplifying a pro-Saudi message coming from Egypt and UAE. According to reports, accounts spreading fake news were also closed in Spain and Ecuador.

The move from twitter comes nearly a month after Facebook removed around 350 fake accounts and pages promoting Saudi propaganda. Facebook said it had also suspended more than 350 accounts responsible for spreading information about marketing firms called New Waves in Egypt and Newave in the UAE.

Apart from Twitter, the social networking platform Facebook has been shutting down accounts mainly responsible for spreading fake news in some countries. It is doing so since late last year. According to report, Facebook has shut down thousands of accounts in Indonesia for spreading misinformation. While closing accounts, Facebook has not clearly mentioned its policy on shutting down or recovering accounts.

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