Twitter suspends fake Black accounts supporting Trump
Weeks before the US elections, Twitter has suspended several fake accounts reportedly identifying themselvesto be a part of theAfrican American community.
These accounts were supporting the USPresidentDonald Trumpandhad succeeded in garnering several thousand followers in just a few days.
After carefully observing the activities of these accounts, Twitter found the tweets and the accounts to be in violation of its politics, and therefore took the decision to suspend these accounts.
"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 Francisco-based company.
The tweets were largely on similar lines where the posts claimed to be "black" and still supporting Trump. "Yes IM BLACK AND IM VOTING FOR TRUMP!" said one of most popular tweets under the name of Ted Katya on September 17. "Libs wont like that but I dont care!!!"
An expert,Darren Linvill, a professor at Clemson University, has identified these fake accounts as"digital black face". He has said these accounts"used images of real Americans in their profiles".
Twitter identified these accounts as they were"deceiving users about their intention and their identity, and were therefore deemed to be manipulating public debate."
All tweets and accounts that misuse the platform "to artificially amplify or suppress information or engage in behavior that manipulates or disrupts people’s experience on Twitter" are penalised by the social media giant.