03 April 2020; MEMO: Twitter yesterday removed 7,800 fake accounts linked to the governments of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the UAE for violating its policies and being a “targeted attempt to undermine the public conversation”.
The company explained that 5,350 accounts received directions from governments “amplifying content praising Saudi leadership, and critical of Qatar and Turkish activity in Yemen”.
While a further 2,541 accounts were linked to 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. Information we gained externally indicates it was taking direction from the Egyptian government.”
This came as part of a mass cull of Twitter users, following an investigation by Bellingcat, which led to “795 fake accounts pushing content from suspicious “news” websites” also being removed from the site.
