Buzzfeed News identified and reported "a new network of suspected Twitter propaganda accounts" that Twitter itself failed to flag and remove until notified by the media organization:
The 45 suspect accounts were uncovered through basic analysis of those that interacted or retweeted accounts cited by Twitter to Congress, yet none of them appeared on the company's list.
The relative ease of discovery raises serious questions as to just how many Russian-linked bots may still be active on Twitter, how the company identifies and removes such accounts, and whether its process for identifying accounts for its evidence was inadequate.
Twitter reportedly suspended all 45 accounts within 24 hours of being notified.
The network of propaganda accounts was identified using a database of 17 million Brexit-related tweets collected by the University of Sheffield. They tweeted predominantly in German, and were primarily focused on jumping on German hashtag games and other trending topics, often inserting negative messages about the German chancellor, Angela Merkel.
However, 20 of the accounts also tweeted about Trump, and 21 about Brexit – with a huge spike of activity on the day of the referendum, 23 June 2016. The tweets about Trump and Brexit were often the only ones the accounts posted in English.
Buzzfeed News goes on to explain in extensive detail how it conducted its search but acknowledges this particular network of Russian-linked propaganda had limited reach and ultimately failed to generate any influential traction.
Twitter Has Suspended Another 45 Suspected Propaganda Accounts After They Were Flagged By BuzzFeed News (Buzzfeed News)