Twitter suspends hundreds of 'manipulative' accounts

NEW YORK (FOX5NY.COM) - With many consumers concerned about the big tech companies, their motives, ability to punish abuse, and dedication to the security and privacy of their users, Twitter announced Tuesday it suspended hundreds of accounts involved in what it deemed "coordinated manipulation."

"It's in their vested interest these days to do their best to show that it cares about taking some of its worst users off of its site," said Henry Casey, a senior writer with Laptop Mag and Tom's Guide.

He said he sees the suspensions of these now 770 Twitter accounts as a move as much about cleaning the political discourse as cleaning Twitter's reputation.

Creating one or dozens of new accounts is easy, Casey said.

"I'm not going to say how many vanity Twitter accounts I have for funny jokes I came up with but it's very easy," Casey said. So the fewer than 800 engaged in coordinated manipulation are "probably a drop in the bucket," he added.

But a likely necessary drop-in-the-bucket from an optics perspective for Twitter after Russia used fake accounts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. And just last week, Twitter and Facebook removed hundreds of accounts and pages they determined Russia and Iran created and used to sow and spread more disinformation around the world.

"They're not removing Alex Jones—they're just suspending him for a week," Casey said. "They need to be doing something to show they care about keeping their pond clean and this is the least they can do."