Twitter Account Purges Continue As Service Cuts Guccifer 2.0 And DCLeaks
Twitter said today it is removing the accounts of Guccifer 2.0 and DCLeaks from its servers in reaction to the Robert Mueller indictments of 12 Russians who allegedly used the service to interfere with the 2016 presidential election.
The purge comes as Twitter mounts a massive campaign to eliminate bad accounts and what it calls “disinformation” from the service. The purges have eliminated millions of followers from such big names as politicians Barack Obama and California Governor Jerry Brown, and also dropped fans from huge celebrities like Katy Perry, Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga.
The cuts also included followers of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, who claimed to have lost 200,000 followers. President Donald Trump, who uses Twitter virtually every day, has so far lost 300,000 followers.
The purges are occurring in large batches, and Twitter said it would continue to remove problematic accounts through the coming week.
The Guccifer 2.0 and DCLeak accounts have been dormant for at least a year and a half, but were suspended less than 30 hours after the Mueller indictment. The Russian military intelligence used the account to spread information it allegedly hacked from Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, the Democratic National Committee, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
Guccifer 2.0 was allegedly a lone rogue hacker with no party affiliation or allegiance. DCLeaks claimed to be a Washington-based watchdog that aimed to “analyze and publish a large amount of emails from top-ranking officials,” according to the indictment.
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