Twitter Suspends Hundreds of Accounts Linked To Russian Operatives (usatoday.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from USA Today: Twitter says it found some 200 accounts linked to the same Russian groups that bought $100,000 worth of ads on Facebook to sow political unrest and manipulate U.S. voters during the presidential election. The Twitter accounts, which were taken down over the last month, were linked to 470 accounts and pages that Facebook traced to the International Research Agency, a Russian troll farm. According to a blog post released by Twitter Thursday after briefing staffers on the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, the groups on Facebook had 22 Twitter accounts. Twitter found an additional 179 accounts connected to those 22. Twitter also shared information on Russian news outlet Russia Today, or RT, which has ties to the Kremlin, according to U.S. intelligence agencies.

Comments

Re:As opposed to others who do it?

[PopeRatzo]

Okay. Am I prohibited from purchasing ads from US media companies?

Yes, if they are meant to influence an election.

If so, why?

Don't ask me. Ask Congress (who passed the law) and Richard Nixon (who signed the law) and the Supreme Court (who upheld the law's provisions regarding foreign influence in elections).

Re:As opposed to others who do it?

[Jeremy Erwin]

If you are a foreign national you cannot legally contribute to a candidate for federal office.

Re:As opposed to others who do it?

[BitterOak]

I'm rather curious about this as well. I haven't been following this thing very closely, so in short: What did they do that was illegal

If they paid money for ads in support of or against a particular political candidate, they were in violation of Title 52 United States Code Sec. 30121. The constitutionality of this statute was challenged on First Amendment grounds, but the U.S. Supreme Court, in refusing to hear an appeal, let stand a ruling by a federal court of appeals that found the statute to be enforceable.