Twitter closes thousands of fake accounts in Egypt, UAE

CAIRO - 20 September 2019 – Twitter has removed a network of 273 accounts in Egypt and UAE after revealing that they were tweeting against countries such as Qatar, Iran and supporting Saudi Arabia’s government, according to a

statement

issued by Twitter on Friday.

“We also found evidence that these accounts were created and managed by DotDev, a private technology company operating in the UAE and Egypt. We have permanently suspended DotDev, and all accounts associated with them, from our service,” the statement read.

Moreover, a total of 4.248 accounts operating in UAE were removed after it has revealed these accounts were tweeting about regional issues concerning the Yemen Civil War and Houthi’s movement, besides targeting Qatar.

The company also announced the suspension of Saud al-Qahtani’s account over violating its platform manipulation policies, saying “This account is not included in the archives disclosed today.”

Far away from the Middle East, more than 200,000 fake accounts that attempted to “sow discord” among Hong Kong protesters were shut down. Other thousands accounts in Spain and Ecuador were suspended.

"Transparency and openness are deep-seated values at the heart of Twitter which define and guide our methodology around these disclosures," the company said.