Is Twitter Doing the Kremlin’s Bidding? — The Buckley Club
Marc C. Johnson19 hrs ago4 min read
Is Twitter Doing the Kremlin’s Bidding?
Mysterious Account Suspensions Raise Questions
One of the most entertaining aspects of Twitter is its variety of parody accounts. From the short-lived Opioid Dog, lampooning a Super Bowl commercial, to Bored Elon Musk and Elizabeth Windsor, parody accounts abound and some have achieved near-cult status.
But recently, some accounts began to disappear, and one could be forgiven for wondering if there was a pattern. Several parody accounts whose targets were Russian government institutions and officials inexplicably went offline at almost exactly the same time.
One such account was @DarthPutinKGB, the author of such memorable tweets as this one in the header of this article, and this one, for Valentine’s Day:
The account, online since at least 2013, with over 25,000 tweets and nearly 60,000 followers, was apparently suspended at the end of May. After an outcry on social media, it was reinstated a couple of days later.
Similarly, a parody account for the Russian Ambassador to the United Kingdom (@AmbYakovenkoNot) also went offline. Here is one of “his” recent tweets, referencing the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, a contentious issue between the British and Russian governments. It is also back up now.
Another was @RusEmbassyNot, an account recently established to parody the Russian Embassy in the UK. They appear to have anticipated the suspension, as seen in one of their last tweets, also making light of the Litvinenko spat:
Yet another parody account, mocking the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov (@SovietSergey), was also briefly suspended:
Twitter offers reasons why accounts may be suspended, including: Spam, Account Security, and Abusive Tweets. Twitter’s definition of “abusive” includes: threats, harassment, hateful conduct, account abuse and impersonation.
On the question of impersonation, which would seem to be the issue at hand, the company states that accounts will not be removed if the profile “clearly states” that it is not affiliated with or connected to similarly named individuals. But with names like “AmbYakovenkoNot” and “DarthPutinKGB,” it seems hard to argue that they could reasonably be mistaken for the actual person.
Moreover, Twitter has a specific policy for parody accounts. It states that both the account’s bio and its name must make clear it is a parody. @SovietSergey seemed pretty straightforward on both scores:
So which rules were violated? Did the Russian government ask the company to take down the accounts? Twitter isn’t saying. (Twitter declined to comment for this article, citing “privacy and security reasons.”)
Not all accounts critical of the Kremlin were suspended; far from it. @DietKGB and @Sputnik_Not continued broadcasting, with gems like this:
But the mere fact of the suspensions may cause some to question Twitter’s commitment to free speech if it conflicts with their business model, as well as whether Twitter responds to pressure from foreign governments to crack down on opponents’ communications on social media, a potentially dangerous precedent.
One glaring irony here is that it’s been well-documented that the Kremlin uses social media, including Twitter, extensively for its own purposes. The New York Times published a stunning expose earlier this year on how the Russian government bankrolls internet trolls to foment confusion and push its agenda.
The popular account @DPRK_NEWS took the unusual step of dropping character briefly to condemn Twitter’s actions. The tweets were later deleted, but are reproduced below.
As promised, the account was quickly back to its usual self:
Follow the author on Twitter: @BlogGuero
Marc C. Johnson19 hrs ago4 min read
Is Twitter Doing the Kremlin’s Bidding?
Mysterious Account Suspensions Raise Questions
One of the most entertaining aspects of Twitter is its variety of parody accounts. From the short-lived Opioid Dog, lampooning a Super Bowl commercial, to Bored Elon Musk and Elizabeth Windsor, parody accounts abound and some have achieved near-cult status.
But recently, some accounts began to disappear, and one could be forgiven for wondering if there was a pattern. Several parody accounts whose targets were Russian government institutions and officials inexplicably went offline at almost exactly the same time.
One such account was @DarthPutinKGB, the author of such memorable tweets as this one in the header of this article, and this one, for Valentine’s Day:
The account, online since at least 2013, with over 25,000 tweets and nearly 60,000 followers, was apparently suspended at the end of May. After an outcry on social media, it was reinstated a couple of days later.
Similarly, a parody account for the Russian Ambassador to the United Kingdom (@AmbYakovenkoNot) also went offline. Here is one of “his” recent tweets, referencing the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, a contentious issue between the British and Russian governments. It is also back up now.
Another was @RusEmbassyNot, an account recently established to parody the Russian Embassy in the UK. They appear to have anticipated the suspension, as seen in one of their last tweets, also making light of the Litvinenko spat:
Yet another parody account, mocking the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov (@SovietSergey), was also briefly suspended:
Twitter offers reasons why accounts may be suspended, including: Spam, Account Security, and Abusive Tweets. Twitter’s definition of “abusive” includes: threats, harassment, hateful conduct, account abuse and impersonation.
On the question of impersonation, which would seem to be the issue at hand, the company states that accounts will not be removed if the profile “clearly states” that it is not affiliated with or connected to similarly named individuals. But with names like “AmbYakovenkoNot” and “DarthPutinKGB,” it seems hard to argue that they could reasonably be mistaken for the actual person.
Moreover, Twitter has a specific policy for parody accounts. It states that both the account’s bio and its name must make clear it is a parody. @SovietSergey seemed pretty straightforward on both scores:
So which rules were violated? Did the Russian government ask the company to take down the accounts? Twitter isn’t saying. (Twitter declined to comment for this article, citing “privacy and security reasons.”)
Not all accounts critical of the Kremlin were suspended; far from it. @DietKGB and @Sputnik_Not continued broadcasting, with gems like this:
But the mere fact of the suspensions may cause some to question Twitter’s commitment to free speech if it conflicts with their business model, as well as whether Twitter responds to pressure from foreign governments to crack down on opponents’ communications on social media, a potentially dangerous precedent.
One glaring irony here is that it’s been well-documented that the Kremlin uses social media, including Twitter, extensively for its own purposes. The New York Times published a stunning expose earlier this year on how the Russian government bankrolls internet trolls to foment confusion and push its agenda.
The popular account @DPRK_NEWS took the unusual step of dropping character briefly to condemn Twitter’s actions. The tweets were later deleted, but are reproduced below.
As promised, the account was quickly back to its usual self:
Follow the author on Twitter: @BlogGuero