Source: Hoch Zwei / Getty
Twitter is actively on the job now when it comes to ridding its service of Russian propaganda bots but it would seem they missed a spot while cleaning up. CNN broke the news that Twitter failed to remove hundreds of suspect Russian videos aimed at Americans from Vine.
Guess Twitter forgot it owns Vine and that maybe they should check there as well? Regardless this is still not a good look at all.
Twitter pulled down the digital shutters on Vine back in 2016 but kept up the content of accounts they felt were notable. Unfortunately, two of those “notable” accounts belonged to @Guns4life_me and @PoliceStateMe, who happen to work out of the Internet Research Agency a Kremlin-backed disinformation bureau. Those two accounts also happened to be on the list of 2,750 usernames Twitter determined to be linked to the Kremlin and purged from its service.
Thanks to the efforts of one user who spotted the videos and reported their findings to CNN, Twitter removed the content from the two accounts on Wednesday. The damage has already been done though, Vine clips have already amassed over 14 million loops between them.
Understandably the folks on Capitol Hill are not too happy to hear this news. Leading Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Senator Mark Warner had this to say about Twitter’s apparent negligence:
“Twitter shouldn’t wait for Congress or anybody else to send a ‘to-do’ list with specific accounts to delete. The company needs to take responsibility and be proactive about stopping Russians and other bad actors who are abusing its platform.”
We see no lies there at all.
This unfortunate news comes just as the 12-year-old social media company reported netting it’s first ever profit. This news more than likely killed their vibe instantly.
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Photo by Hoch Zwei/Corbis via Getty Images
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