Twitter suspended several fake accounts that were posing as African-American supporters of Donald Trump and had managed to garner several thousand subscribers in a few days.
"Our teams are working around the clock to investigate this activity and will take action in accordance with Twitter regulations if the tweets are in violation,"
a spokesperson for the group based in San Francisco said on Tuesday (Oct. 13).
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Darren Linvill, a professor at Clemson University who specializes in social media disinformation, posted examples of these fake accounts on Twitter.
"Yes I AM BLACK AND I VOTE FOR TRUMP!"
The gauchos are not going to like it but I do not care !!! ”
, tweeted for example the profile of "Ted Katya" on September 17, with a lot of emojis.
This tweet has been shared over 6,000 times and “liked” over 16,000.
Most of these accounts
“used photos of real Americans on their profiles.
Several were followed by tens of thousands of subscribers, ”
explains Darren Linvill.
Twitter has suspended the identified profiles because they mislead users about their intentions and identity, and thus manipulate public debate.
The company prohibits using its platform
"to artificially amplify or remove information, or engage in behavior that manipulates or disrupts people's experiences on Twitter,"
said a rule published in September.
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Social networks, led by Facebook and Twitter, are mobilized in the run-up to the presidential election on November 3, to show that they have learned the lessons of the scandals of 2016, when massive disinformation campaigns had been carried out since then. foreigners, especially Russia, to influence voters.
The platforms have come a long way in terms of dismantling large-scale operations, but now face a plethora of smaller-scale attempts, from the spread of false information to fake accounts that appear credible, like the ones suspended on Tuesday.
The actors behind this kind of campaign often use current topics, which excite public opinion, such as the pandemic or the Black Lives Matter movements ("black lives matter"), to quickly attract as many people as possible. .