WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Twitter Inc deleted more than 10,000 automated accounts posting messages that discouraged people from voting in Tuesday’s U.S. election and wrongly appeared to be from Democrats, after the party flagged the misleading tweets to the social media company.

A voting official hands back an early voter his ID in Valdosta, Georgia, U.S., October 24, 2018. REUTERS/Lawrence Bryant

“We took action on relevant accounts and activity on Twitter,” a Twitter spokesman said in an email. The removals took place in late September and early October.

Twitter removed more than 10,000 accounts, according to three sources familiar with the Democrats’ effort. The number is modest, considering that Twitter has previously deleted millions of accounts it determined were responsible for spreading misinformation in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Yet the removals represent an early win for a fledgling effort by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, or DCCC, a party group that supports Democrats running for the U.S. House of Representatives.

The DCCC launched the effort this year in response to the party’s inability to respond to millions of accounts on Twitter and other social media platforms that spread negative and false information about Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and other party candidates in 2016, three people familiar with the operation told Reuters.

While the prevalence of misinformation campaigns have so far been modest in the run-up to the Congressional elections on Nov. 6, Democrats are hoping the flagging operation will help them react quickly if there is a flurry of such messages in the coming days.

The Tweets included ones that discouraged Democratic men from voting, saying that would drown out the voice of women, according to two of the sources familiar with the flagging operation.

The DCCC developed its own system for identifying and reporting malicious automated accounts on social media, according to the three party sources.

The system was built in part from publicly available tools known as “Hoaxley” and “Botometer” developed by University of Indiana computer researchers. They allow a user to identify automated accounts, also known as bots, and analyse how they spread information on specific topics.

“We made Hoaxley and Botometer free for anyone to use because people deserve to know what’s a bot and what’s not,” said Filippo Menczer, professor of informatics and computer science at the University of Indiana.

The Democratic National Committee works with a group of contractors and partners to rapidly identify misinformation campaigns.

They include RoBhat Labs, a firm whose website says it has developed technology capable of detecting bots and identifying political-bias in messages.

The collaboration with RoBhat has already led to the discovery of malicious accounts and posts, which were referred to social media companies and other campaign officials, DNC Chief Technology Officer Raffi Krikorian said in email.

Krikorian did not say whether the flagged posts were ultimately removed by Twitter.

“We provide the DNC with reports about what we’re seeing in terms of bot activity and where it’s being amplified,” said Ash Bhat, co-founder of RoBhat Labs.

“We can’t tell you who’s behind these different operations, Twitter hides that from us, but with the technology you known when and how it’s happening,” Bhat said.</s>Twitter said Friday that it had deleted thousands of automated accounts that were posting messages discouraging people from voting in Tuesday’s midterm elections. Most of the accounts were posing as Democrats, Twitter said.

“We removed a series of accounts for engaging in attempts to share disinformation in an automated fashion – a violation of our policies. We stopped this quickly and at its source,” a Twitter spokesperson said in a statement provided to CNN Business.

Twitter said that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee had brought the accounts to their attention. “For the election this year we have established open lines of communication and direct, easy escalation paths for state election officials, DHS, and campaign organizations from both major parties,” the spokesperson said.

The company said it believes the network of accounts was run from the United States. It would not share any details about what the accounts looked like, or how they were working to discourage voting.

The accounts were taken down in late September and early October, the company said.

Reuters was first to report on the account removals.</s>Twitter Inc deleted more than 10,000 automated accounts posting messages that discouraged people from voting in U.S. election.

The accounts wrongly appeared to be from Democrats, after the party flagged the misleading tweets to the social media company.

“We took action on relevant accounts and activity on Twitter,” a Twitter spokesman said in an email. The removals took place in late September and early October.

Twitter removed more than 10,000 accounts, according to three sources familiar with the Democrats’ effort. The number is modest, considering that Twitter has previously deleted millions of accounts it determined were responsible for spreading misinformation in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Yet the removals represent an early win for a fledgling effort by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, or DCCC, a party group that supports Democrats running for the U.S. House of Representatives.

The DCCC launched the effort this year in response to the party’s inability to respond to millions of accounts on Twitter and other social media platforms that spread negative and false information about Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and other party candidates in 2016, three people familiar with the operation told Reuters.

While the prevalence of misinformation campaigns have so far been modest in the run-up to the Congressional elections on Nov. 6, Democrats are hoping the flagging operation will help them react quickly if there is a flurry of such messages in the coming days.

The Tweets included ones that discouraged Democratic men from voting, saying that would drown out the voice of women, according to two of the sources familiar with the flagging operation.

The DCCC developed its own system for identifying and reporting malicious automated accounts on social media, according to the three party sources.

The system was built in part from publicly available tools known as “Hoaxley” and “Botometer” developed by University of Indiana computer researchers. They allow a user to identify automated accounts, also known as bots, and analyze how they spread information on specific topics.

“We made Hoaxley and Botometer free for anyone to use because people deserve to know what’s a bot and what’s not,” said Filippo Menczer, professor of informatics and computer science at the University of Indiana.

The Democratic National Committee works with a group of contractors and partners to rapidly identify misinformation campaigns.

They include RoBhat Labs, a firm whose website says it has developed technology capable of detecting bots and identifying political-bias in messages.

The collaboration with RoBhat has already led to the discovery of malicious accounts and posts, which were referred to social media companies and other campaign officials, DNC Chief Technology Officer Raffi Krikorian said in email.</s>Twitter said Friday that it had deleted thousands of automated accounts that were posting messages discouraging people from voting in Tuesday’s midterm elections. Most of the accounts were posing as Democrats, Twitter said.

“We removed a series of accounts for engaging in attempts to share disinformation in an automated fashion – a violation of our policies. We stopped this quickly and at its source,” a Twitter spokesperson said in a statement provided to CNN Business.

Twitter said that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) had brought the accounts to their attention. “For the election this year we have established open lines of communication and direct, easy escalation paths for state election officials, DHS, and campaign organizations from both major parties,” the spokesperson said.

The company said it believes the network of accounts was run from the United States. It would not share any details about what the accounts looked like, or how they were working to discourage voting.

The accounts were taken down in late September and early October, the company said.

Democratic National Committee’s chief technology officer Raffi Krikorian said in a statement, “We applaud Twitter for taking this step to help ensure that voters get correct and timely information about how to make their voices heard on Election Day.”

The DCCC did not provide comment.

Reuters was first to report on the account removals.</s>Twitter has reportedly purged more than 10,000 bot accounts for attempts at discouraging voting.

According to a new report in Reuters, Twitter removed the accounts, which were automatically posting "misleading" messages about voting, in September and October.

The accounts made it appear as if the misleading information was coming from Democrats, which it was not. The accounts were reported to Twitter by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), which is one of many organizations that has partnered with Twitter on election integrity efforts.

In a statement, a Twitter spokesperson said some accounts had been removed, but declined to say how many:



"For the election this year we have established open lines of communication and direct, easy escalation paths for state election officials, DHS, and campaign organizations from both major parties," the spokesperson said. "Our singular goal is to enforce our policies vigorously and protect conversational health on our service. We removed a series of accounts for engaging in attempts to share disinformation in an automated fashion — a violation of our policies. We stopped this quickly and at its source."

Even so, a removal of 10,000 accounts isn't huge by Twitter standards. The company, which has undertaken a concerted effort to crack down on bots and spam, has removed as many as 1 million accounts per day, according to reports. But it does show that Twitter is taking the spread of misinformation in the run-up to the U.S. midterm elections more seriously than it has previously.</s>Twitter has deleted thousands of automated accounts that tried to discourage users from voting in the upcoming midterm elections, the company confirmed Friday. The accounts originated in the U.S. and were determined to be more mischievous than an organized plot.

"We removed a series of accounts for engaging in attempts to share disinformation in an automated fashion — a violation of our policies," a Twitter spokesperson said. "We stopped this quickly and at its source. "

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) flagged the malicious accounts to Twitter officials, Reuters reports. The tweets included several that said male Democrats should refrain from voting to avoid drowning out the voices of women, sources told the news agency.

"For the election this year we have established open lines of communication and direct, easy escalation paths for state election officials, DHS, and campaign organizations from both major parties," the Twitter spokesperson said.

Earlier this year, Twitter reportedly suspended 70 million fake and suspicious accounts and identified 3,814 accounts that were believed to be propaganda from the Russian government-linked Internet Research Agency.

The accounts were taken down in late September and early October, Reuters reports.</s>Twitter Inc deleted more than 10,000 automated accounts posting messages that discouraged people from voting in Tuesday's U.S. election and wrongly appeared to be from Democrats, after the party flagged the misleading tweets to the social media company.

"We took action on relevant accounts and activity on Twitter," a Twitter spokesman said in an email. The removals took place in late September and early October.

The number of accounts removed is modest, considering that Twitter has previously deleted millions of accounts it determined were responsible for spreading misinformation in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Yet the removals represent an early win for a fledgling effort by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, or DCCC, a party group that supports Democrats running for the U.S. House of Representatives.

The DCCC launched the effort this year in response to the party's inability to respond to millions of accounts on Twitter and other social media platforms that spread negative and false information about Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and other party candidates in 2016, three people familiar with the operation told Reuters.</s>Twitter has removed more than 10,000 accounts aiming to discourage people from voting in the US midterm elections on Tuesday, according to Reuters.

A Twitter representative confirmed the social media site deleted several automated accounts sharing misinformation, but couldn't confirm the 10,000 figure. The company removed the accounts in September and October, Reuters reports.

The accounts were reportedly made to look like they were from Democrats, but the party reported the tweets to Twitter. The accounts also appeared to be domestic. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

"For the election this year we have established open lines of communication and direct, easy escalation paths for state election officials, DHS, and campaign organizations from both major parties," a Twitter representative said. "We removed a series of accounts for engaging in attempts to share disinformation in an automated fashion - a violation of our policies. We stopped this quickly and at its source."

Twitter has been working to step up its fight against fake accounts. In July, it was reported that the social media company was suspending 1 million accounts a day in its fight against disinformation. In a June blog post, Twitter said it's "now removing 214 percent more accounts for violating our spam policies on a year-on-year basis." Twitter's efforts to combat bots and trolls comes as it deals with revelations that Russian-linked social media troll accounts may have influenced the 2016 US presidential election.</s>Twitter removed more than 10,000 automated accounts, or “bots,” for posting messages purportedly sent by Democrats discouraging people from voting in next week’s midterm races, Reuters reported Friday.

The suspicious tweets were initially spotted by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, a group that supports party candidates seeking terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, and subsequently brought them to Twitter’s attention prior to their being removed in late September and early October, the report said.

“We took action on relevant accounts and activity on Twitter,” a Twitter spokesperson told Reuters.

The tweets were detected as the results of an effort initiated earlier this year by Democrats in the wake of former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and other candidates being targeted during the 2016 election by bots, hackers and internet trolls traced to the Russian government, three people familiar with the DCCC’s operation told Reuters.

Using publicly available tools known as “Hoaxley” and “Botometer,” the DCCC developed a system for detecting and reporting suspected automated social media activity, Democratic sources told Reuters.

Among the posts identified by the DCCC’s system were tweets that specifically discouraged Democratic men from voting in the Nov. 6 midterms, “by arguing that their ballots would drown out those cast by women,” the report said.

The DCCC’s flagging ultimately resulted in Twitter purging more than 10,000 accounts from the social networking service, Reuters reported, citing three unnamed sources familiar with the matter.

Representatives for Twitter did not immediately return a message confirming the number of accounts affected.

In addition to hacking Democratic targets including the DCCC and leaking internal documents leaked during the 2016 race, Russian operatives weaponized Twitter and other social media platforms to sow discord and attack Mrs. Clinton’s campaign, according to U.S. officials. Moscow has denied the allegations.

Twitter previously said it detected a total of 50,258 automated accounts that were identified as Russian-linked and responsible for tweeting election-related content during the 2016 race.

Russians employed by the Internet Research Agency, a company operated by an oligarch and friend of President Vladimir Putin, also meddled in the race by spreading disinformation and stirring debate on social networking services, U.S. officials said previously. Twitter ultimately traced their activities during the 2016 election to 3,841 accounts responsible for engaging with roughly 1.4 million users.

“Activity that attempts to manipulate or disrupt Twitter’s service is not allowed. We remove this when we see it,” Twitter said earlier this week.</s>Twitter on Friday said it has deleted thousands of automated accounts that were posing as belonging to Democrats while trying to spread false information and discourage people from voting in the upcoming midterm elections.

“We stopped this quickly and at its source,” a spokesperson for the company told BuzzFeed News.

Twitter would not confirm how many accounts were deleted. But Reuters reported the company deleted more than 10,000 accounts after they were flagged by Democrats.

Twitter said it has been working closely with both major political parties, as well as the Department of Homeland Security, to monitor any efforts at interfering in Tuesday’s elections, where control of both houses of Congress could be affected.

The deleted accounts appeared to be domestic in origin, and coordinated mischief rather than international interference, Twitter added.

“Our singular goal is to enforce our policies vigorously and protect conversational health on our service,” the company spokesperson said in a statement. “We removed a series of accounts for engaging in attempts to share disinformation in an automated fashion — a violation of our policies.”

According to Reuters, the accounts were flagged by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Officials there did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Twitter deletes 10,000 bot accounts that were discouraging people from voting in the midterm elections in the United States.