Feb. 23 (UPI) — Twitter has suspended 70 accounts belonging to paid Mike Bloomberg campaign workers for violating its platform rules.
The former New York City mayor’s presidential campaign developed a social media strategy to promote his online following.
The Los Angeles Times first reported Twitter citing “platform manipulation” in the suspension of these accounts in violation of its Platform Manipulation and Spam Policy. The rules were created to prevent manipulation and fake accounts prevalent among Russian-sponsored troll networks in the 2016 presidential election.
Twitter’s policy prohibits the use of such accounts to “artificially amplify or suppress information.” They also prohibit engaging in “deceptive activity that misleads others.”
“We have taken enforcement action on a group of accounts for violating our rules against platform manipulation and spam,” a Twitter spokesman told the Los Angeles Times.
The spokesman added that some suspensions will be permanent and in other cases account owners will have to verify they have control of their accounts.
The campaign sponsored hundreds of new accounts that directly copied content, which violated Twitter platform rules against “creating multiple accounts to post duplicative content,” Twitter said.
It also violated platform rules against “posting identical or substantially similar Tweets or hashtags from multiple accounts you operate,” and “coordinating with or compensating others to engage in artificial engagement or amplification, even if the people involved use only one account,” the company added.
The Wall Street Journal reported that documents showed that the Bloomberg campaign hired more than 500 “deputy digital organizers” to work 20 hours to 30 hours a week for $2,500 a month.
