Twitter: 88,000 Saudi accounts deleted, launched "buffalo"

2019-12-20T20:19:46.517Z

Twitter announced that it had canceled over 88,000 accounts that created or spread false news in the context of a disinformation campaign according to the social network conducted with the approval of the government of Saudi Arabia. On his official blog, Twitter wrote that the fake news came from 5,929 accounts that constituted the "core" of the operation, while the others were used to revive the false content. The false news was aimed at "promoting the geopolitical interests of Saudi Arabia in the world". Among the themes, the sanctions against Iran, the regional archenetic power of Riyadh. "Although most of the content was in Arabic, a portion was aimed at a western audience and concerned sanctions against Iran and missions of Saudi government authority in the Middle East." The origin of the accounts was identified in a Saudi society - Smaat - which collaborates with the government of Riyadh in the management of social networks.