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Twitter Deletes Over 10,000 Bots That Discouraged US Midterm Voting (cnn.com)

Twitter has deleted over 10,000 disinformation bots discouraging Americans from voting in Tuesday's midterm elections.

An anonymous reader quotes CNN: Twitter said that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee had brought the accounts to their attention. "For the election this year we have established open lines of communication and direct, easy escalation paths for state election officials, DHS, and campaign organizations from both major parties," the spokesperson said. The company said it believes the network of accounts was run from the United States.
The 10,000 accounts were deleted in late September and early October, Reuters reports: The number is modest, considering that Twitter has previously deleted millions of accounts it determined were responsible for spreading misinformation in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Yet the removals represent an early win for a fledgling effort... The DCCC launched the effort this year in response to the party's inability to respond to millions of accounts on Twitter and other social media platforms that spread negative and false information about Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and other party candidates in 2016, three people familiar with the operation told Reuters... The DCCC developed its own system for identifying and reporting malicious automated accounts on social media, according to the three party sources.

1 of 177 comments (clear)

  1. Re: Democratic control by Raenex · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    they are trying to gain partisan advantages [..] false hysteria

    You mean like this?

    "The Texas Democratic Party asked non-citizens to register to vote, sending out applications to immigrants with the box citizenship already checked "Yes," according to new complaints filed Thursday asking prosecutors to see what laws may have been broken.

    The Public Interest Legal Foundation alerted district attorneys and the federal Justice Department to the pre-checked applications, and also included a signed affidavit from a man who said some of his relatives, who aren't citizens, received the mailing."

    "The applications were pre-addressed to elections officials, which is likely what left many voters to believe they were receiving an official communication from the state.

    But the return address was from the State Democratic Executive Committee, and listed an address in Austin that matches the state Democratic Party's headquarters.

    The letter is emblazoned with "Urgent! Your voter registration deadline is October 9." It continues: "Your voter registration application is inside. Complete, sign and return it today!"

    On the application, boxes affirming the applicant is both 18 and a U.S. citizen are already checked with an "X" in the Yes field.

    The mailing also urges those who are unsure if they're registered to "Mail it in.""