Accounts highlighting Russian disinformation improperly suspended, Twitter says

Twitter on Wednesday said accounts highlighting Russian disinformation on the social media platform had been improperly suspended.

A number of researchers’ accounts were highlighting Russian disinformation tactics such as using years-old videos to purport current violence in eastern Ukraine, The Washington Post reported. 

Some thought the accounts were suspended due to Russian bots mass reporting the tweets, but Twitter’s head of site integrity disputed those claims.

“We’re closely investigating — but mass reporting is not a factor here,” Yoel Roth wrote on Twitter.

“A small number of human errors as part of our work to proactively address manipulated media resulted in these incorrect enforcements. We’re fixing the issue and reaching out directly to the affected folks,” he added.

Twitter spokeswoman Katie Rosborough explained in a statement that the human review team found the videos shared by the researchers were manipulated media, which is against Twitter policy, according to the Post. 

“We’ve been proactively monitoring for emerging narratives that are violative of our policies, and, in this instance, we took enforcement action on a number of accounts in error,” Rosborough said, noting she only knows of less than 12 accounts that were affected.

Nick Waters, an investigator for Bellingcat who is familiar with the suspensions, said he knew of 15 accounts affected by the error, the Post noted. 

“We’re expeditiously reviewing these actions and have already proactively reinstated access to a number of affected accounts. The claims that the errors were a coordinated bot campaign or the result of mass reporting is inaccurate,” Rosborough added. 

The error comes as Russia has been hit with multiple sanctions from various countries due to its aggression in Ukraine. 

The Hill has reached out to Twitter for comment.