Twitter Notifies Over Million of Its Users About Alleged Russian Accounts

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - US online networking service Twitter has notified some 1.4 million users about interactions with accounts likely linked to the St. Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency (IRA), the company said in a statement.

"We have expanded the number of people notified about interactions with Twitter accounts potentially connected to a propaganda effort by a Russian government-linked organization known as the Internet Research Agency," Twitter said on Wednesday. "Approximately 1.4 million people have now received a notification from Twitter."

Twitter sent letters to users who interacted with IRA accounts by liking their content, replying to posts or retweeting them.

In December, Facebook said that St. Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency, which is suspected of alleged interfering in the US election, spent only $0.97 on the referendum-related ads delivered to UK audiences. Twitter has also looked into the organization and has suspended almost 4,000 accounts linked to it since October.

Twitter’s general counsel told the US Senate Intelligence Committee last year the number of Russia-linked accounts with election-related content was one one hundredth of a percent (0.0001) of all accounts.

Russia has repeatedly refuted the allegations of its interference in other states' internal affairs.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stressed, when speaking about the purported meddling in elections in the United States, the United Kingdom or other countries, that there was no evidence to substantiate the claims.