Twitter on Thursday confirmed it closed nearly 2,541 inauthentic accounts that were critical of Iran, Qatar and Turkey.
“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,” Twitter said late Thursday in its official “Twitter Safety” account.
“Today, we’re updating our archive of state-backed information operations with some recent account networks we’ve removed from our service,” the microblogging giant said. “Information we gained externally indicates it was taking direction from the Egyptian government,” it added.
“We discovered many inauthentic accounts were accessing Twitter from a single IP range in Honduras, and heavily retweeting the President’s account,” the website said, pointing to Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who became president after overthrowing Egypt’s first-ever democratically elected president, Mohammad Morsi.
“We removed 3,104 accounts when it became clear a staffer created the fake accounts on the government’s behalf.”
Twitter also called out Saudi-controlled information operations targeting Turkey and Qatar.
“A network of accounts associated with Saudi Arabia and operating out of multiple countries including KSA (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia), 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,” it said.
