After blocking several researchers’ accounts as Russia began a military strike against Ukraine on Thursday, Twitter has admitted it “mistakenly” removed a number of accounts sharing details about Russian military activity.
Several researchers sharing Russia-Ukraine information found their Twitter accounts “unexpectedly” suspended since late Wednesday.
Twitter’s Head of Site Integrity, Yoel Roth, said in a tweet that the company’s human moderation team made the mistake.
“A small number of human errors as part of our work to proactively address manipulated media resulted in these incorrect enforcements. We’re fixing the issue and reaching out directly to the affected folks,” he posted.
“We do not trigger automated enforcement based on report volume, ever, exactly because of how easily gamed that would be,” Roth added.
Earlier, Oliver Alexander, an analyst with open-source intelligence (OSINT), said: “I am back again after having been locked out twice in 24 hours. First time for a post debunking the “foiled sabotage/gas attack” and the second time for a post debunking the “Ukrainian attack into Russia”.
OSINT researcher Kyle Glen was also locked out of his account for 12 hours, according to tweets from Glen and a post shared by another OSINT organization.
Security analyst Oliver Alexander also claimed to have been locked out of his account twice in 24 hours, reports The Verge.
A Twitter thread compiled by Nick Waters, an analyst at the pioneering OSINT organization Bellingcat, listed more account suspensions.
In an earlier statement, a Twitter spokesperson said that action had been taken against these accounts in error and was not part of a coordinated campaign.
“We’re closely investigating — but mass reporting is not a factor here,” said Roth.
