Twitter Deletes Egypt, Saudi Accounts Over 'pro-govt Direction'

Twitter said Thursday it has removed thousands of accounts in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Honduras, Indonesia and Serbia that allegedly took direction from governments or pushed pro-government content

San Francisco, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd Apr, 2020 ) :Twitter said Thursday it has removed thousands of accounts in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Honduras, Indonesia and Serbia that allegedly took direction from governments or pushed pro-government content.

"We removed 2,541 accounts in an Egypt-based network, known as the El Fagr network," the San Francisco-based tech firm posted in a series of tweets.

"The media group created inauthentic accounts to amplify messaging critical of Iran, Qatar and Turkey. Information we gained externally indicates it was taking direction from the Egyptian government.

" El Fagr's online managing editor Mina Salah vehemently pushed back.

"Yes we are loyal to the state but we don't receive instructions from anyone. We're merely defending our country and its position is clear vis-a-vis Iran, Qatar and Turkey," he told AFP.

He said Twitter was effectively censoring the newspaper's content and that journalists were banned from even creating new personal accounts.

The platform also deleted 5,350 accounts from regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia for "amplifying content praising Saudi leadership, and critical of Qatar and Turkish activity in Yemen".