Twitter suspends over 70 mn fake accounts
San Francisco, July 7 : Twitter Inc. has suspended more than 70 million fake accounts in May and June in a massive drive to clear out bots and trolls on the platform, the media reported.
The crackdown on suspicious accounts, which came amid mounting political pressure after Congress criticised Twitter for lax regulation on foreign-controlled fake accounts to spread false information that may impact US domestic politics, Xinhua reported on Friday.
Twitter sources told The Washington Post that the rate of account suspensions has more than doubled since October as over 1 million accounts were suspended a day in recent months.
The wave of account suspensions by the world's largest social network is one of several recent campaigns by Twitter to police its platform and stop spam and abuse of fake accounts.
Last month, Twitter announced "new measures to fight abuse and trolls, new policies on hateful conduct and violent extremism, and (we) are bringing in new technology and staff to fight spam and abuse."
Focusing on improving the health of conversations on Twitter means "ensuring people have access to credible, relevant, and high-quality information on Twitter," Del Harvey, Vice President of Trust and Safety of Twitter, said in an official blog post in June.
Twitter's aggressive measures against unwanted accounts may impact its user base as a fall in the number of monthly users could be expected in the second quarter ending last week, according to the Post report.
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Two African nationals linked to 12 cyber fraud complaints nationwide held in Delhi
New Delhi (PTI): Two African nationals have been arrested over suspected involvement in an international cyber fraud racket that allegedly duped victims across multiple states of more than Rs 50 lakh, police said on Thursday.
The accused allegedly impersonated women on online platforms to befriend Indian victims and build emotional relationships. They would later claim to be travelling to India and fabricate stories about being detained at airports or facing immigration issues, seeking money for clearance and other expenses.
Police said the arrests were made following sustained surveillance, technical analysis and verification of suspicious mule bank accounts linked to multiple complaints registered on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCRP).
According to the police, at least 12 complaints from across states involving defrauded funds exceeding Rs 50 lakh were traced to several bank accounts used by the accused.
"These accounts were opened in different names across various banks and were used to receive money fraudulently obtained from victims," a senior police officer said.
During investigation, six mobile phones and two passports were seized from the accused. Police said the devices contained incriminating chats, details of mule bank accounts and conversations with victims, along with fabricated images related to airports apparently used to mislead targets.
Both accused are also suspected to have links with drug trafficking activities in the Delhi-NCR region and are being probed further, police said, adding that efforts are underway to identify and apprehend other members.
