Twitter SafetyVerified account

Since introducing our updated policies on March 18, we’ve removed over 2,230 Tweets containing misleading and potentially harmful content. Our automated systems have challenged more than 3.4 million accounts targeting manipulative discussions around COVID-19.

Toward the end of last year, we identified clusters of accounts engaged in inauthentic coordinated activity which led to the removal of 8,558 accounts working to promote Serbia’s ruling party and its leader.

A network of accounts associated with Saudi Arabia and operating out of multiple countries including KSA, Egypt and UAE, were amplifying content praising Saudi leadership, and critical of Qatar and Turkish activity in Yemen. A total of 5,350 accounts were removed.

Following an investigation originating from a @Bellingcat report on an information operation in Indonesia targeting the West Papuan independence movement, we removed 795 fake accounts pushing content from suspicious “news” websites and promoting pro-government content.

We discovered many inauthentic accounts were accessing Twitter from a single IP range in Honduras, and heavily Retweeting the President’s account. We removed 3,104 accounts when it became clear a staffer created the fake accounts on the government’s behalf.

We removed 2,541 accounts in an Egypt-based network, known as the El Fagr network.The media group created inauthentic accounts to amplify messaging critical of Iran, Qatar and Turkey. Information we gained externally indicates it was taking direction from the Egyptian government.

The accounts we have identified, investigated and removed, were part of five distinct campaigns associated with five countries: Egypt, Honduras, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, and Serbia.

Transparency is fundamental to the work we do at Twitter. Today, we’re updating our archive of state-backed information operations with some recent account networks we’ve removed from our service.

Since introducing these policies, we have removed more than 1,100 tweets containing misleading and potentially harmful content from Twitter. Our automated systems have also challenged more than 1.5 million accounts which were targeting manipulative discussions around COVID-19.

We’re keeping our enforcement guidance under close review and are consulting with medical professionals on any update we may need to make as things continue to evolve. We will keep you updated on our progress.

Official government accounts engaging in conversation about the origins of the virus and global public conversation about potential emergent treatments will be permitted, unless the content contains clear incitement to take a harmful physical action.

https://twitter.com/TwitterSafety/status/1240418440982040579 …

We want to make it clear that we will not be able to take enforcement action on every Tweet that contains incomplete or disputed information about COVID-19. Details on some of the content that may be considered violative and particularly harmful under our expanded policies below:

Content that increases the chance that someone contracts or transmits the virus, including: - Denial of expert guidance - Encouragement to use fake or ineffective treatments, preventions, and diagnostic techniques - Misleading content purporting to be from experts or authorities

Update: we’re expanding our safety rules to include content that could place people at a higher risk of transmitting COVID-19. Now, we will require people to remove Tweets that include the following: