Twitter stops over 100 pro Putin accounts

Twitter has banned more than 100 accounts that pushed the pro-rus hashtag InstandWithPut for participation in <x0-authentical behavior coordinated”, days after the hashtag became a trend on the social network in the middle of the invasion in Ukraine.

A Twitter spokesman said today that he is still investigating the origin and links between accounts and that he has stopped accounts for violating its “oplics of platform manipulation and unwanted mail”.

Calculations with more tweets about the hashtag on Wednesday had only dozens of followers and used stock photos as a picture of the profile, which led dezinform researchers to ask how the tweets became viral.

It's an indication that Russia's former “lie-fire” has been neutralised and drowned in recent weeks, especially since Western media and social platforms are starting to operate.

The array of authentic accounts was first discovered by Marc Owen Jones, an assistant professor of Middle Eastern and digital human science studies at Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar.

The “people often use the term bots, but what we saw here was a lot of accounts that demonstrated not authentic activity. They're not robots. They're much harder to control than that. Imagine a configuration call center. Think of the amount of damage you can do,” he said.

This is the paradox of this kind of behavior. Some of the most engaged tweets were people who denounced hashtag,” said Jones.

Russia's failed attempt to create support on Twitter is the latest illustration of a Russian propaganda fight that has fallen west. Since the invasion, the Kremlin has struggled to penetrate new barriers placed on digital platforms and to advance an anti-Ukrainian torturer.

This is a notable change from the first six weeks of the year, when Russian messages were more popular, according to a report by Omelas, a digital analysis firm.

Russia flooded social media worldwide in early January at the same time that Western media were not so focused on reporting Ukraine, Omelas found. This gave Russia a window to spread the Kremlin-backed propaganda, including the reference to an invasion in Ukraine as a <x0-cysoperation military”, reporting that Ukraine was provoking the war and other more favourable Naratis for Russia, according to Omelas.

Between January 1st and February 20, Omelas traced more than 192,000 posts from Russian government sources on Ukraine - 40 percent of all posts then traced.

The Kremlin-backed domination of the conversation changed in mid-February, after troops gathered on the Ukrainian border and Russian President Vladimir Putin prepared an attack. Coverage throughout the war hours by Western media and a consistency of reports showing Putin as a aggressor has dominated the news, which has helped build global sympathy for Ukraine, said Andrew Gonzalez, a geopolitical analyst with Omelas.

“Russia is not taking the same influence of its audience as it historically had”, Gonzalez said. “The audience certainly believes more than Western portrayal that it is a tragedy for Ukraine and Russia is the aggressor. This story is pretty strong right now. ”

Gonzalez added that Western media reports have strongly rejected Putin's portrayal of events in Ukraine, which has included his attempt to convince the audience that Russia is preparing to operate in self-defence.

Russia is losing a lot of ground and its media towards all efforts to produce democratic media that are now concentrated in Ukraine. The influence of Russian messages waned as an invasion approached, Omelas discovered.

The extent of the Kremlin is expected to shrink even more thanks to continued efforts by social media platforms. YouTube, Facebook and other leading social media sites limited the expansion of Russian state media, RT and Sputnik.

Sinan Aral, director of the MIT Digital Economic Initiative, wrote in a letter in the Washington Post that platforms had received a different strategy since Russia invaded Crimea in 2014.

“Today, the war of information in Ukraine is more intense, more controversial and perhaps more important than ever, because the motivation of volunteer fighters in the country and encouraging foreign support abroad are critical for success,” he wrote. And this time, it seems that Russia is losing. ”

Technology companies are continuing to follow accounts linked to Russia. Earlier this week, Facebook and Twitter banned some of the false identities created by a Russian group that were being presented as Ukrainian journalists.

However, even after the ban, false Ukrainian journalists continued to post articles as if Russia's conquest had resulted in the immediate surrender of Ukraine.

A post from Tuesday to one of the Russian group's website, Ukraine Today, is the title: “What can be the political structure of post-war Ukraine?” It starts with line: “Military Operation in Ukraine continues, but its result is already a pre-conception of”, NBC News broadcast.