Twitter Suspends 70 Accounts With Pro-Bloomberg Tweets

Twitter Inc. on Friday began suspending 70 accounts that posted identical messages in support of Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg in a pattern that violates the social-media company’s rules on platform manipulation and spam, The Los Angeles Times reported, citing a Twitter spokesperson.

Some of the suspensions will be permanent, while in some cases account owners will have to verify they have control of their accounts, according to newspaper.

In Twitter posts reviewed by the publication users often used identical text, images, links and hashtags, with many of the accounts having been created in the past two months, the Times said. After the publication asked Twitter about the pattern it had found, the tech company determined that the posts were in violation of its “Platform Manipulation and Spam Policy.”

Twitter said as the new accounts posted the same messages, the campaign violated its rules against “creating multiple accounts to post duplicative content,” “posting identical or substantially similar Tweets or hashtags from multiple accounts you operate” and “coordinating with or compensating others to engage in artificial engagement or amplification, even if the people involved use only one account.”

Bloomberg’s campaign did not immediately respond to the L.A. Times’ request for comment.