Social media giants Twitter and Facebook have suspended numerous accounts for spreading misinformation about voting in the US election, reported reuters. According to the report, the accounts were freshly created with the motive to spread right-learning news.
Twitter Inc has said that the accounts violated its “coordination” policy by posting identical content while operating as independent entities.
One of the accounts suspended is SVNewsAlerts which had more than 78,000 Twitter followers, with more than 10,000 added in the past week. The other accounts suspended by Twitter are FJNewsReporter, Crisis_Intel and Faytuks.
Facebook also banned the US based pages called SV News and FJ news on their platform.
As per the report, some of these accounts had huge following in Russia, which has been accused of meddling in the US election 2016 and 2020.
Even as the companies have taken action against the accounts, false news spread by them is still making rounds on the internet.
For months, social media giants have been constantly working to make their platforms a trustworthy place by rolling new policies to curb misinformation related to the hotly contested US elections.
Twitter, Donald Trump’s favourite platform, had issued a written policy highlighting its post-election plans on Monday.
“People on Twitter, including candidates for office, may not claim an election win before it is authoritatively called,” Twitter mentioned. The company said that it will be prioritizing the presidential race as well as “other highly contested races where there may be significant issues with misleading information.”
Facebook, meanwhile, said that it is planning to warn users against trusting premature projection of victory in the US election. It said that accounts making such claims will be issued warning, directing users to the platforms’ respective authrised voting information centers.
In US, Facebook and Instagram will also feature badges on top of the screen which will convey the “votes are being counted” – until the final results come out.