(MENAFN- Asia Times) Twitter has deleted thousands of accounts linked to foreign governments and archived them to a public database aiming to track state-backed misinformation, Xinhua reported.
Twitter said about 4,779 accounts it believed linked with or directly backed by Iran were taken down from its platform, the report said.
The San Francisco-based social media firm said these accounts tweeted global news content often with an angle that benefited the diplomatic and geostrategic views of the Iranian state.
Twitter suggested these accounts were purged for "platform manipulation," which is a violation of its rules, the report said.
Twitter also deleted four accounts associated with the Russian Internet Research Agency, describing it as a Russian "troll farm" suspected of interfering with the U.S. presidential elections in 2016.
Moreover, the company said 133 accounts linked with the Catalan independence movement in Spain and 33 accounts originating within Venezuela engaged in manipulative behavior were deleted from Twitter's platform and archived to its database, the report said.
Twitter said the database was maintained to combat foreign government-backed misinformation and increase transparency.
The social networking giant appears to be getting more responsive to political pressure. Earlier this month, it apologized for suspending accounts critical of Chinese government policy days ahead of the 30th anniversary of a crackdown on protesters at Beijing's Tiananmen Square.
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