Twitter bans pro-Trump fake handles

Twitter says it has suspended several fake accounts purporting to be African Americans who support President Donald Trump and which had succeeded in garnering several thousand followers in just a few days.

“Our teams are working diligently to investigate this activity and will take action in line with the Twitter rules if Tweets are found to be in violation,” said a spokesman for the San Franciscobased company.

Darren Linvill, a professor at Clemson University who specialises in disinformation on social media, published some examples of the fake accounts on Twitter, accusing them of using “digital black face”.

“Yes IM BLACK AND IM VOTING FOR TRUMP!” (sic) said one of the examples he shared, under the name of Ted Katya on Sept 17. “Libs wont like that but I dont care!!!”

The tweet was shared 6,000 times and “liked” more then 16,000 times.

Most of the accounts “used images of real Americans in their profiles”, Prof Linville said, and some of them had tens of thousands of followers.

Twitter suspended the identified profiles because they were deceiving users about their intention and their identity, and were therefore deemed to be manipulating public debate.

The company forbids using the platform “to artificially amplify or suppress information or engage in behaviour that manipulates or disrupts people’s experience on Twitter”.

The social media giants have mobilised in the run-up to the Nov 3 election to show they have learned the lessons of 2016, when they were used to spread false or misleading information ahead of the US elections, some by foreign powers such as Russia.