Twitter starts crackdown on fake accounts and bots

Yesterday, some of the Twitter’s users faced login issues. However, some who were able to log into their account noticed that they lost a number of followers mysteriously.

Soon after that, the #twitterlockout hashtag started trending on Twitter, as this temporary login issue happened without any prior notification from the company’s side.

Meanwhile, some people have suspected that this all happened because of “bot purge” issue, a type of account speculated to be handled by “hostile foreign agents” for spreading false rumors and propaganda. While some think that Twitter is now suspending Politically conservative accounts.

The company responded by saying that only accounts which are suspected to be fake, malicious or organized by bots are being suspended. Twitter is asking them to confirm their identities so that company differentiates between real and fake account, just to maintain site’s security policies.

Twitter released a statement to end all these speculations and said,

“Twitter’s tools are apolitical, and we enforce our rules without political bias. As part of our ongoing work in safety, we identify suspicious account behaviors that indicate automated activity or violations of our policies around having multiple accounts, or abuse. We also take action on any accounts we find that violate our terms of service, including asking account owners to confirm a phone number so we can confirm a human is behind it. That’s why some people may be experiencing suspensions or locks. This is part of our ongoing, comprehensive efforts to make Twitter safer and healthier for everyone.”

According to National March for truth organizer, Holly Figueroa O’Reilly claimed that the accounts that deleted earlier were Russian bots and the one who lost followers soon get them back after Twitter Verification will be completed.

This all has started after the “Parkland school shooting” last week accounts handling and posts. Twitter suspected that Russain accounts have linked with the hashtags about the gun control debate which soon take over negative turn, as reported by Washington Post.