Twitter releases database of over 10 million tweets by troll accounts allegedly from Russia, Iran
The network found the tweets during its investigation into foreign interference in political conversations.
Twitter on Wednesday released a database of over 10 million tweets said to be from troll accounts, of which nine million were from Russia, reported The Verge. The social media network said the tweets came from 3,841 accounts affiliated with Russia’s Internet Research Agency, and 770 other accounts, “potentially” originating in Iran. The website released the database as part of its investigation into foreign interference in political conversations.
Apart from 10 million tweets, the “potentially state-backed” accounts put up over 2 million images, GIFs, videos, and Periscope broadcasts, from as long ago as 2009, the social media network said. “It is clear that information operations and coordinated inauthentic behaviour will not cease [in the future],” Twitter admitted.
However, it added: “For our part, we are committed to understanding how bad-faith actors use our services. We will continue to proactively combat nefarious attempts to undermine the integrity of Twitter, while partnering with civil society, government, our industry peers, and researchers to improve our collective understanding of coordinated attempts to interfere in the public conversation.”
The company said it has provided access to these troll accounts to a small group of researchers with expertise in the matter, in a bid to solve the problem. “We are constantly seeking to improve our own ability to detect, understand, and neutralise these campaigns as quickly and robustly as technically possible,” the company added.
Twitter said it had committed to the United States Congress and the public that it will investigate foreign interference into political conversations on social media, and provide regular updates about the same.
On September 5, Twitter Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey admitted before the US Senate that the social media network was “unprepared and ill-equipped” for the misinformation campaigns that have plagued it for the last few years. Dorsey said that the social media platform was meant to be a “public square”, but failed to deal with “abuse, harassment, troll armies, propaganda through bots, misinformation campaigns, and divisive filter bubbles”.