Twitter Suspends Fake Accounts That Claim to Be Black Trump Supporters

This group of fake accounts received 265,000 retweets or Twitter mentions.

By Dan Bova Oct 14, 2020
Busakorn Pongparnit | Getty Images

The Washington Post reports that Twitter has suspended more than two dozen fake accounts pretending to be Black supporters of President Donald Trump.

Many of these fake accounts posted identical phrases such as: “YES IM BLACK AND IM VOTING FOR TRUMP!!!”

Related: 81 Percent Of U.S. Adults Do Not Regularly Use Twitter

Clemson University social media researcher Darren Linvill says that this network of fake accounts has gotten more than 265,000 retweets or other interactions on Twitter since last weekend.

The Washington Post reports that Linvill saw evidence of foreign influence, with “a few traces of the Russian Cyrillic alphabet appearing in online records of the accounts.”

A Twitter spokesperson told CNBC: “Our teams are working diligently to investigate this activity and will take action in line with the Twitter Rules if Tweets are found to be in violation. Presently, we’ve taken action on some Tweets and accounts for violations of our policies on platform manipulation and spam.”

Related: How to Manage (and Monitor) Your Reputation on Social Media

The Washington Post reports that Twitter has suspended more than two dozen fake accounts pretending to be Black supporters of President Donald Trump.

Many of these fake accounts posted identical phrases such as: “YES IM BLACK AND IM VOTING FOR TRUMP!!!”

Related: 81 Percent Of U.S. Adults Do Not Regularly Use Twitter

Clemson University social media researcher Darren Linvill says that this network of fake accounts has gotten more than 265,000 retweets or other interactions on Twitter since last weekend.

The Washington Post reports that Linvill saw evidence of foreign influence, with “a few traces of the Russian Cyrillic alphabet appearing in online records of the accounts.”

A Twitter spokesperson told CNBC: “Our teams are working diligently to investigate this activity and will take action in line with the Twitter Rules if Tweets are found to be in violation. Presently, we’ve taken action on some Tweets and accounts for violations of our policies on platform manipulation and spam.”

Related: How to Manage (and Monitor) Your Reputation on Social Media

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Dan Bova

VP of Special Projects at Entrepreneur.com
Entrepreneur Staff
Dan Bova is the VP of Special Projects at Entrepreneur.com and host of the How Success Happens podcast. He previously worked at Jimmy Kimmel Live, Maxim, and Spy magazine. His latest books for kids include This Day in History, Car and Driver's Trivia Zone, Road & Track Crew's Big & Fast Cars, The Big Little...

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