• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, September 20, 2019

Despite the immensity of the challenge, Twitter continues to crack down on state-backed efforts to flood its platform with false and misleading information.

The company’s latest cleanse encompasses over 10,000 accounts operating out of the world’s most politically fraught regions.

More than 4,000 of those accounts were based in the People’s Republic of China — and were actively sowing discord about the protest movement in Hong Kong.

In August, Twitter outed a network of more than 200,000 fake accounts based in the People’s Republic of China -- all part of a far larger disinformation campaign.

Separately, Twitter’s investigations detected a small group of six accounts linked to Saudi Arabia’s state-run media apparatus. They were engaged in coordinated efforts to amplify messaging that was beneficial to the Saudi government.

While active, the accounts in this set presented themselves as independent journalistic outlets, tweeting narratives favorable to the Saudi government.

Twitter’s security team has also removed a network of 273 accounts originating in the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, which, among other efforts, were engaged in coordinated attempts to spread discord in Qatar and Iran.

Twitter also found evidence these accounts were created and managed by DotDev, a private technology company operating in the United Arab Emirates and Egypt.

As such, the social giant has permanently suspended DotDev and all accounts associated it.

In addition, Twitter has suspended a separate group of 4,248 accounts operating uniquely from the United Arab Emirates, mainly directed at Qatar and Yemen. These accounts were found to be employing false personae and tweeting about regional issues, such as the Yemeni Civil War and the Houthi Movement.