WASHINGTON:
Twitter has shut down thousands of accounts worldwide for spreading
misinformation, including some artificially amplifying pro-Saudi messaging as
part of a regional propaganda war. The move affected pro-Saudi accounts coming
from Egypt and the United Arab Emirates directed at Qatar and Yemen, Twitter
said, as well as others from China seeking to sow discord among protesters in
Hong Kong.

Additional fake
accounts were suspended in Spain and Ecuador, Twitter's safety team said. The
move is the latest in a series of actions by social media giants such as
Facebook and Twitter cracking down on manipulation, often by state-controlled
entities disguising their identities. It follows similar moves by Facebook last
month removing fake accounts based in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE for
posting misinformation about Middle East hotspots and others involved in
"coordinated inauthentic behavior" focused on Hong Kong.

Royal Saudi
account canceled

Twitter removed
273 accounts working in concert in "a multi-faceted information
operation" to target Saudi rivals Qatar and Iran among other countries, as
well as amplify pro-Saudi government messaging. 
These accounts were "created and managed" DotDev, a technology
company based in the UAE and Egypt. DotDev did not respond to an AFP request
for comment.

Saudi Arabia,
along with the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt, has enforced an economic boycott of
Qatar since June 2017, accusing the Gulf nation of links to extremist groups
and being too close to Iran. Twitter also notably shut down the account of
Saudi royal court adviser Saud al-Qahtani. The close confidante of Prince
Mohammed bin Salman, who ran Riyadh's media center and managed an electronic
army unabashedly defending its image, was implicated in the killing of
Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in October 2018 but was never
formally charged.

Twitter also
suspended a separate group of 4,258 accounts operating from the UAE, with
messaging mainly targeting Qatar and Yemen. "These accounts were often
employing false personae and tweeting about regional issues," such as the
war in Yemen and main agitators in the conflict, Iran-linked Houthi rebels,
Twitter's statement said.

The UAE is a key
partner in the Saudi-led military coalition fighting the Houthis in Yemen in a
five-year conflict that has devastated the country. Six accounts linked to
Saudi Arabia's state-run media were also flagged by Twitter for being
"engaged in coordinated efforts to amplify messaging that was beneficial
to the Saudi government," Twitter said. Twitter noted the accounts had
posed as "independent journalistic outlets while tweeting narratives
favorable to the Saudi government".

Hong Kong protests
targeted

Twitter
identified 4,302 accounts based in China "attempting to sow discord about
the protest movement in Hong Kong." This follows the identification in
August of more than 200,000 fake accounts in China engaged in fueling public
discord in Hong Kong. Twitter and Facebook are both banned in mainland China.
Hong Kong has seen months of unrest as citizens protest what they say is an
erosion of freedoms under Beijing's tightening grip. While Beijing has not
intervened directly, its powerful media machine has steadily ramped up a war of
words.

The moves to
silence Chinese-run accounts on Twitter and Facebook were greeted with protests
and claims of hypocrisy in the mainland, with posters taking to the
authorized-and tightly controlled-Weibo platform. Twitter said it removed 259
accounts operated by the conservative Partido Popular that were "active
for a relatively short period, and consisted primarily of fake accounts
engaging in spamming or retweet behavior to increase engagement." And in
Ecuador, 1,019 accounts tied to the ruling center-left PAIS Alliance
"composed largely of fake accounts" were deleted.

Facebook suspends
apps

In another
development, Facebook said it suspended "tens of thousands" of apps
on its platform as a result of a privacy practices review launched following a
scandal involving Cambridge Analytica. The review started in 2018 after
revelations that the political consultancy hijacked personal data on millions
of Facebook users, and it included attorneys, external investigators, data
scientists, engineers, policy specialists and others, according to a Facebook
statement.

The suspensions
are "not necessarily an indication that these apps were posing a threat to
people," said vice president of partnerships Ime Archibong, adding that
some developers "did not respond to our request for information."
Archibong said the investigation "has addressed millions of apps. Of
those, tens of thousands have been suspended for a variety of reasons while we
continue to investigate."

The suspected
apps were associated with about 400 developers, and many of the software
programs were still in testing phases, according to Facebook. The huge social
network became the subject of intense scrutiny after acknowledging in 2018 that
Cambridge Analytica misappropriated personal data on tens of millions of
Facebook users as part of its work for Donald Trump's presidential campaign.

Subsequently,
Facebook said it would review all apps on the platform to determine how they
used data and if they respect its privacy rules. "In a few cases, we have
banned apps completely," Archibong said. Bans can be caused by violations
including inappropriately sharing data obtained from Facebook or making data
publicly available without protecting people's identities, according to the
social network.

App crackdown

"One app
banned was called myPersonality, which shared information with researchers and
companies with only limited protections in place, and then refused our request
to participate in an audit," Archibong said. A year ago, Facebook said it
had banned some 400 apps including one called myPersonality, which according to
Archibong "shared information with researchers and companies with only
limited protections in place," and refused to accept an audit.

Facebook said a
recent agreement on privacy with the US Federal Trade Commission - which
included a record $5 billion fine -- calls for additional oversight on app
developers. It "requires developers to annually certify compliance with
our policies," Archibong said. "Any developer that doesn't go along
with these requirements will be held accountable." Facebook earlier this
year filed a lawsuit against South Korean data analytics firm Rankwave in
California to make sure it isn't breaking the leading social network's rules.

Revamping
controls

Along with
slapping Facebook with a record fine for data protection violations, the
settlement in July called for Facebook to create a privacy committee within its
board of directors to be appointed by an independent nominating committee. This
would end "unfettered control" of decisions on privacy by Facebook's
chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, the FTC statement said. Facebook also will be
required to conduct privacy reviews of every new or modified product, service
or practice before it is implemented, including for its WhatsApp and Instagram
services.- Agencies