The Daily Beast reveals Twitter has not turned over any new information to Senate and House Intelligence Committee investigators since Twitter's acting general counsel Sean Edgett testified before lawmakers November 1 and 2, 2017:
Twitter first identified 201 non-bot accounts tied to the St. Petersburg-based troll farm known as the Internet Research Association on Sept. 28. Barely a month later, for a Nov. 1 congressional hearing, the company increased that figure tenfold, to 2,752—in addition to the existence of 36,746 Russia-linked bot accounts involved in election-related tweets. Twenty days after that, however, Twitter has yet to provide an updated amount, let alone specific propaganda accounts, to legislators, three sources familiar with the inquiries tell The Daily Beast.
When Twitter representatives first met with the Senate Intelligence Committee in September, Vice Chairman Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) called the social network's briefing "deeply disappointing" and "inadequate on almost every level."
During the November public hearings alongside representatives from Facebook and Google, Edgett said three times that only 5% of Twitter's 330 million users are fake accounts, but independent experts repeatedly place that number considerably higher, "closer to 15 percent of its user base, or nearly 50 million accounts."
Edgett also admitted a foreign influence campaign to interfere with an election was not a violation of Twitter's terms of service.
A recent incident illustrates how Twitter still seems more reactive than proactive, and even then, only when pushed by public exposure:
Even Kremlin-tied accounts disclosed by Twitter do not necessarily get banned from the platform when they reappear under new names. @Jenn_abrams, or “Jenna Abrams,” was among the imposter accounts Twitter disclosed to Congress. “Abrams” sprung back up under a new name earlier this month, with a username confirmed by the same WordPress account tied to previous troll farm activity. And Twitter only shuttered the new account after CNN pushed the company on the Russian troll account’s weeks-long renaissance under the new name: @RealJennaAbrams.
Reporters at CNN let the company know of the Russian troll farm-linked account’s revival and showed proof it was run by the same users as before. Twitter did not comment to CNN and took no action on the account until after CNN’s article was published.
Twitter says it is "deeply concerned by Russian state-sponsored misuse of social media to influence the 2016 U.S. election" and believes "activity of this kind is unacceptable.” But it also acknowledges it's having trouble dealing with "malicious automation and disinformation" on a global scale:
In the statement to The Daily Beast, the Twitter spokesperson indicated that the company faced challenges in making efforts at removing Kremlin propaganda both scalable and intellectually consistent.
Full story: Twitter Has Turned Over Zero New Russian Troll Accounts to Congress (Daily Beast)