Twitter announced Friday that at least 88,000 accounts “engaged in spammy behavior across a wide range of topics” were permanently suspended from the social media platform.
The site disclosed comprehensive data on 5,929 accounts, but did not provide information pertaining to the rest of the accounts believed to be within the network out of concern for the privacy of users whose profiles were potentially hijacked and involuntarily included in the scheme.
According to the release, the operation was traced back to Saudi Arabia, and most accounts within the network amplified favorable messages pertaining to the Middle Eastern country’s authorities through “aggressive liking, retweeting and replying.” Though the accounts primarily engaged with Arabic-language content, Twitter revealed the network also magnified events relevant to Western users - such as the “discussion around sanctions in Iran and appearances by Saudi government officials in Western media.”
However, these were not the only tactics utilized by the group. The social media platform said the network’s accounts would post “helpful content,” like weather updates or crisis response information, to lure individuals into following their profiles. Twitter argued that this practice made it difficult for netizens to separate the fraudulent accounts’ non-political tweets from politicized content.
“Our investigations have traced the source of the coordinated activity to Smaat, a social media marketing and management company based in Saudi Arabia,” the Twitter release revealed. “We have permanently suspended Smaat’s access to our service as a result, as well as the Twitter accounts of Smaat’s senior executives.”
The release noted Smaat managed several Twitter accounts of “high-profile individuals,” including profiles belonging to Saudi government officials.
