Twitter takes down 20,000 fake accounts

Twitter removed 20,000 fake accounts tied to the governments of several countries, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Serbia, for violating company policy.

Government-linked accounts of Honduras and Indonesia were also removed after Twitter determined the posts from all five governments were an “attempt to undermine the public conversation,” according to The Guardian.

Yoel Roth, head of Twitter’s site integrity, told The Guardian the removed accounts were demonstrative of the company’s efforts to “work to detect and investigate state-backed information operations.”

The removals included 8,558 accounts linked to the Serbian Progressive party of the country’s president, Aleksandar Vučić. The accounts were found to be spreading positive news of Vučić’s government and attacking his political opponents.

The company also deleted 5,350 accounts linking back to the Saudi monarchy that were operating in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, according to The Guardian.

These accounts were found to be spreading messages praising Saudi leadership and seeking to diminish the reputation of Qatar and Turkish presences in Yemen.