Twitter Blocks 70Mln Accounts Over Alleged Fake Content Spreading – Reports

Twitter suspended 70 million accounts in the past two months on suspicion of spreading misinformation, US media reported.

The California-based social media website froze fake and suspicious accounts at a rate of over a million a day in May and June, and this pace continued in July, the Washington Post said.

Data, obtained by the newspaper, showed that the rate of suspensions had more than doubled since October when Twitter was pressured by Congress to act on perceived spread of fake news.

Last week, US social media giant launched new tools to provide even more details on political ads used on its platform, marking the second round of its transparency initiative.

In March, Twitter's Chief Information Security Officer Michael Coates has reportedly left social media giant to start his own company.

Twitter came under harsh criticism for not doing enough to stop a wave of disinformation, including the spread of fake news, which US authorities linked to the 2016 presidential race. US Congress insisted Russia had manipulated users to tilt the campaign in Donald Trump’s favor. Moscow has repeatedly denied all of the allegations.