Twitter
has announced that it took down about 2,000 accounts in Venezuela,
most of which it claimed were “engaged in a state-backed
influence campaign.” This comes amid accusations of a US-led
coup attempt.
The San
Francisco-based social media giant released a blog post on Thursday
saying that it removed 1,196 accounts located in Venezuela which it
deemed to “appear to be engaged in a state-backed influence
campaign targeting domestic audiences.” It also removed another
764 accounts, however, noted: “We are unable to definitively tie
the accounts located in Venezuela to information operations of a
foreign government against another country.”
The
Twitter purge of accounts was met with criticism and accusations of
censorship.
Host of
the Empire Files, a documentary & interview series, Abby
Martin lamented that amid Twitter censorship of pro-government
supporters, “pro-coup Venezuelans & right-wing exiles
dominate the media sphere.”
While pro-coup Venezuelans & right-wing exiles dominate the media sphere, tech companies are actively censoring pro-government accounts they say are working to "influence" people https://t.co/AEfKmHhl1w— Abby Martin (@AbbyMartin) January 31, 2019
Independent
journalist Ben Norton accused social media corporations of acting as
an “extension of US government interests.”
Twitter is now removing thousands of accounts supposedly linked to Venezuela's sovereign government.— Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) January 31, 2019
This comes after Twitter suspended Venezuelan government accounts 1.5 years ago.
Social media corporations act as an extension of US government interestshttps://t.co/AVoF3vNAIa
Amazing how one dataset is Venezuela, just days after US set a coup into motion against its government. As usual, the caveat is buried: “We are unable to definitively tie the accounts located in Venezuela to information operations of a foreign government against another country.” https://t.co/8Krx9E1YDu— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) January 31, 2019
The
Twitter purge comes more than a week after US President Donald Trump
recognized Venezuela's opposition leader Juan Guaido as interim
president in a provocative move against the elected government of
Nicolas Maduro. Guaido, who is the president of the National
Assembly, swore an oath standing on the streets of Caracas and
declared himself interim president on January 23.
Here's a small sample of the hate I've received over the last week for my reporting on the Venezuela coup. But Twitter is shutting down accounts it has *no proof* are connected to the Venezuelan government. https://t.co/wLdDPf1VHX pic.twitter.com/WYgc32pwVo— Dan Cohen (@dancohen3000) February 1, 2019
A vocal
supporter of regime change in the Latin American country Florida
senator Marco Rubio seemed to welcome the news of the Twitter purge
on his own account on Thursday.
Twitter took down 2,000 accounts located in #Venezuela engaged in a "state-backed disinformation & influence campaign via @POLITICO for iOS pic.twitter.com/vOsMsr5k9C— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) January 31, 2019
It’s
not the first time social media has cracked down on Venezuela based
accounts. In September Twitter suspended the official account of the
Venezuelan government’s press team, reportedly without giving any
explanation. Earlier, Telesur English, a multi-state-funded Latin
American news network based in Venezuela, was targeted by Facebook.
Along
with the take down of Venezuela-linked accounts, Twitter removed ones
linked to Iran, Russia and Bangladesh for what it deemed “malicious”
activity. Simultaneously Facebook announced a purge on “inauthentic
behavior” tied to Iran. It deleted multiple pages, groups and
accounts which “repurposed Iranian state media’s reporting on
topics like Israel-Palestine relations and the conflicts in Syria and
Yemen, including the role of the US, Saudi Arabia, and Russia.”
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