Twitter says it mistakenly took down accounts posting on Russian military

KEY POINTS

• Twitter said on Wednesday it had mistakenly suspended around a dozen accounts that were posting about Russian military movements.
• The erroneous action was not due to a coordinated bot campaign or mass reporting of the accounts by other users but had been based on Twitter's rules against synthetic and manipulated media.
• Twitter has already reinstated access to a number of affected accounts.

The Twitter App loads on an iPhone in this illustration photograph taken in Los Angeles, California.

Mike Blake | Reuters

Twitter said on Wednesday it had mistakenly suspended around a dozen accounts that were posting about Russian military movements, and said the action was not due to a coordinated bot campaign or mass reporting of the accounts by other users.

"We've been proactively monitoring for emerging narratives that are violative of our policies, and, in this instance, we took enforcement action on a number of accounts in error," a Twitter spokesperson said in a statement. "We're expeditiously reviewing these actions and have already proactively reinstated access to a number of affected accounts."

The Twitter spokesperson said the erroneous action had been based on its rules against synthetic and manipulated media.

Ukraine declared a state of emergency on Wednesday and told its citizens in Russia to flee, while Moscow began evacuating its Kyiv embassy in the latest ominous signs for Ukrainians who fear an all-out Russian military onslaught.

Twitter's head of site integrity, Yoel Roth, tweeted that the company was closely investigating what had happened but said mass reporting was not a factor. "We do not trigger automated enforcements based on report volume, ever, exactly because of how easily gamed that would be," he said.