Twitter releases hundreds of Russian bot accounts

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Following Facebook releasing the information of Russian-backed accounts, Twitter on Thursday announced that over 200 accounts were linked to spreading Russian propaganda during the 2016 US Election.

Twitter said in a blog post that 22 Twitter accounts were found to be corresponding to the roughly 450 accounts found on Facebook. The Twitter accounts were suspended immediately.

In addition, Twitter found 179 related accounts and banned the ones which violated Twitter’s policy.

Unlike Facebook, Twitter confirmed that the accounts were not registered as advertisers.

In the blog, Twitter also mentioned that Russian media outlet RT (Russia Today) spent over 274,000 US dollars on advertisements in 2016. Its accounts - @RT_com, @RT_America, and @ActualidadRT - promoted 1,823 Tweets that “definitely or potentially” targeted the US market.

Shortly after Twitter's announcement, Sen. Mark Warner, Vice Chairman of the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, told technology news website Recode that Twitter's action was "deeply disappointing" as it took actions based on what was already been unearthed by Facebook.

Twitter's statement came after its meeting with the officials at House and Senate intelligence committees. The company said it will continue to strengthen the platform against attempted manipulation, including malicious automated accounts and actions that violate their Terms of Service.

"It’s important to note our work to fight both malicious bots and misinformation goes beyond any one specific election, event, or time period," the company wrote in the blog post referring to its previous and future efforts to fight such issues.

The company said that it will continue improving its internal systems to detect and prevent new forms of spam and malicious automation, and educate the public on how to "identify and use quality content" on its platform.