Twitter Inc. said today that it has taken down more than 32,000 fake accounts engaged in “state-linked information operations” on its platform.

According to a blog post from members of the Twitter Safety team, the accounts were operated by three networks that it has connected to the People’s Republic of China, Russia, and Turkey. The company has added 32,242 of the removed accounts to its archive of state-linked information operations. 

Twitter said the first network, which it has attributed to China, consisted of 23,750 accounts that made up the core of the network and another 150,000 accounts serving as amplifiers, the latter of which were not included in the archive. “They were Tweeting predominantly in Chinese languages and spreading geopolitical narratives favorable to the Communist Party of China (CCP), while continuing to push deceptive narratives about the political dynamics in Hong Kong,” Twitter detailed.

According to Twitter, the second network is attributed to Russia. The company took it down after finding that it spread content in an inauthentic manner for political ends. Twitter said that the network’s 1,152 accounts, which were also added its state-linked information operations archive, were “associated with Current Policy, a media website engaging in state-backed political propaganda within Russia.”

The third set of removed accounts numbered 7,340 and was “used to amplify political narratives favorable to the AK Parti” in Turkey, according to Twitter. “Technical signals point to the network being associated with the youth wing of the party and a centralized network that maintained a significant number of compromised accounts,” the company stated.  All of those accounts were added to the archive as well.

Twitter has removed every piece of content associated with the networks from its platform. The company has also shared data about the operations with the Stanford Internet Observatory and Australian Strategic Policy Institute, two of the outside partners with which it works to research bad faith social media actors.

Twitter detailed a number of steps it will take to boost these types of collaborations. The company will offer transparency in its state-linked information operations archive around data points such as post impression counts and pledged to “continue to formalize our academic partnerships.” Additionally, Twitter will host an online event year that will invite experts, industry and government to explore ways to collaborate further. 

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