Fake Black Trump ‘supporters’ with tens of thousands of followers purged on social media

On Wednesday, Forbes reported that Twitter is suspending several fake accounts posing as Black supporters of President Donald Trump, saying that they violate the guidelines on spam and account manipulation.

Many of these accounts used identical language over and over, like "YES I'M BLACK AND I'M VOTING FOR TRUMP". Some used images of real Black people without their knowledge or permission. According to Clemson University communications professor Darren Linvill, two dozen of these fake accounts have been retweeted or promoted over 265,000 times.

"Social media platforms are scrambling to tighten and enforce policies on misinformation and disinformation in the runup to November 3, as they seek to avoid a repeat of the 2016 poll that saw Russia interfere through troll accounts, and other tactics, on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube," reported Isabel Togoh. "Twitter has banned all political ads on the platform and is flagging misleading posts and content more prominently (including President Trump's), while Facebook has succumbed to pressure from lawmakers and campaigners and made a lastminute U-turn on certain forms of misinformation spreading, including those related to Covid-19, Qanon, and Holocaust denial."