SUSPENDED

Twitter announced Friday that it is suspending 70 accounts that posted content supporting Mike Bloomberg’s presidential campaign, saying the messages violated its company rules.

Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City, has launched an expansive social media campaign to buoy his White House bid. One prong of the strategy involves hiring temporary employees to launch an array of Twitter accounts that post identical messages, a tactic the social media site said amounted to spam and “platform manipulation.”

“We have taken enforcement action on a group of accounts for violating our rules against platform manipulation and spam,” a Twitter official told The Hill regarding the suspensions, which were first reported by The Los Angeles Times.

Bloomberg, who is worth upwards of $60 billion, launched his presidential campaign in November, several months after his 2020 competitors. To make up ground, the former mayor has spent hundreds of millions of his own money on a national advertising blitz and a social media push to gin up support for his campaign.

The temporary employees recruited by Bloomberg’s camp are given the title “deputy field organizer” and make $2,500 a month to promote his White House bid among their followers. The employees can choose to use campaign-approved language in their posts.