Twitter Suspends 70 Pro-Michael Bloomberg Accounts For ‘Platform Manipulation And Spam’
Twitter has suspended 70 pro-Michael Bloomberg accounts for posting identical content, which the company has deemed “platform manipulation and spam,” The Los Angeles Times reports. While some accounts have reportedly been permanently suspended, others are under review to determine ownership.
“We have taken enforcement action on a group of accounts for violating our rules against platform manipulation and spam,” a Twitter spokesperson confirmed on Friday.
Bloomberg spokeswoman Sabrina Singh called on the Bloomberg campaign’s deputy field organizers to reveal ownership of their social media accounts.
“Through Outvote content is shared by staffers and volunteers to their network of friends and family and was not intended to mislead anyone.”
According to a review of Bloomberg campaign accounts conducted by The Los Angeles Times, many were employing identical hashtags, messages, and links. Such copy-and-paste content conflicts with Twitter’s Platform Manipulation and Spam Policy, which was originally employed as a response to alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
The news comes just days after criticism of a purportedly misleading Bloomberg campaign video of the Democratic debate in Nevada. Despite the complaints, Facebook and Twitter declined to remove the video and claimed that it wasn’t against their policies.
As reported by The Guardian, Bloomberg’s campaign recently hired hundreds of digital organizers who are reportedly paid $2,500 per month to promote the rising presidential campaign via social media. The publication also notes that the social media activities of Bloomberg’s campaign affected Facebook.
“This month, a paid partnership between the former New York mayor’s campaign and popular Instagram meme accounts pushed Facebook to announce it was allowing U.S.-based political candidates to run branded or sponsored content on its social networking platforms,” the report reads.
Twitter is suspending 70 accounts on charge of platform manipulation with identical messages, images being posted to prop up Bloomberg's presidential candidacy.
This practice was heralded by BJP in India with even Union Ministers joining the act yet no action against them.
1/3 pic.twitter.com/5YAsMtda0m
— Pratik Sinha (@free_thinker) February 22, 2020
The Bloomberg campaign’s spending isn’t just online, either. As previously reported by The Inquisitr, the billionaire has made an unprecedented investment into television advertising — approximately $418 million to date — that is $100 million more than all of his competitors combined.
National polling shows that Bloomberg’s spending blitz appears to be paying off; his average support has generally been increasing as former front-runner Joe Biden continues to fall. However, Bloomberg took a hit after the Nevada debate, which saw him attacked from all sides.
Per a Morning Consult poll released Friday, the former New York mayor’s net favorability declined 20 points from the pre-debate survey. His favorability notably dipped the most among self-described moderates. Across men, women, black voters, and white voters, his decline was approximately equal.
Elizabeth Warren’s national polling average also dipped slightly following the debate, although she remains in third behind Biden.
