Twitter suspends 170,000 accounts that it says are 'state linked'

Twitter said it had removed tens of thousands of what it alleged "state linked" accounts on Friday used by China, Russia and Turkey.

Most of the accounts banned this time are allegedly linked to China, the social media giant said, comprised of a "highly engaged core" of 23,750 accounts that was boosted by a further 150,000 "amplifier" accounts.

The Turkish network was made up of 7,340 accounts while the Russian group was 1,152.

All accounts and their content have been removed from Twitter but have been placed on an archive database for researchers.

Closer scrutiny

Twitter has been increasingly active on imposing scrutiny on the content its users published on the platform.

Later last month, Twitter labeled two of President Donald Trump's tweets "unsubstantiated" and accused him of making false claims.

Vera Jourova, a European Commission vice-president, repeatedly praised the move, while saying she would like to see a similar approach taken by social media companies on other false information.

"Be it the president, be the diplomats, be it me... when we [politicians] say something we have to be accountable and we should be able to stand that somebody goes and checks the facts."

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) – a Canberra based think-tank – analyzed the database acquired from Twitter. The institute published a report earlier, showing that there is a close connection between the disinformation campaigns initiated on Twitter during the coronavirus pandemic and pro-Trump and QAnon affiliations.

The report says, about 30 clusters of Twitter accounts, which are affiliated with supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump, the Republican Party or the conspiracy theory QAnon, spread rumors that the coronavirus was a bioweapon created in China.