The social network closely monitors “emerging stories that violate our policies” but has “accidentally taken action,” Busby said. The accounts that were suspended were mostly those of “open-source reporters,” ie accounts that use publicly available information, such as photos and videos. In this way, the Twitter users want to offer an alternative source, which in this case shares information about the crisis in Ukraine, and more specifically about the Russian troop movement.
Several users, including the affected Kyle Glen, believed the suspension was an attack by Russian bots, who would find the contents of the accounts “suspicious”. “It’s an attack on journalism and on the people who trust these accounts over other news media,” Glen said. He is the co-founder of the ‘Conflict News’ account, which has about 361,000 followers.
In addition to US accounts, French, Spanish and Brazilian profiles were also removed for “misleading information”. The account of a Ukrainian civil activist, Serhii Sternenko, was also suspended for a while. It’s unclear exactly why the accounts were reported.
Twitter insisted that there was no Russian sabotage, but admitted that the platform itself had “accidentally” taken action against a dozen accounts for “manipulated and misleading information”. The platform has now announced that the flaw is being investigated. Most accounts are now active again.