Twitter Suspends Fake Black Pro-Trump Accounts

Donald Trump’s long history of racism has dogged him more during the 2020 election cycle than it did during 2016, thanks in part to the Black Lives Matter movement gaining momentum. His dog whistles have only grown louder, encouraging his fanbase to be more open with their racism. Trump may be more popular with white Evangelicals, but he trails opponent Joe Biden with Black voters well into the double digits, and the Black vote is essential to winning the presidency. Despite high-profile Black surrogates like Candace Owens, Paris Dennard, and Diamond and Silk continuing their public support, Trump is still struggling to convince Black voters he’s the right choice for them.

Team Trump’s solution? Make it look like they have more support from Black voters than they actually do, thanks to Twitter fakery. His people have been taking advantage of disinformation bots and fake accounts to sway opinion since 2016, so they decided to do it again this year. Most of the accounts used images of real Black Americans in their profiles, and some of them had tens of thousands of followers. Twitter suspended the profiles because they were deceiving users about their intention and their identity, and were therefore deemed to be manipulating public debate.

Twitter took notice, however, and those accounts have now been suspended. “Our teams are working diligently to investigate this activity and will take action in line with the Twitter rules if Tweets are found to be in violation,” said a spokesperson.

Facebook has also taken steps to remove all disinformation from their platform, which displeases the Trump Campaign staff.

This is a Facebook employee.

Facebook is actively interfering in the election.

Facebook is rigging the election for Joe Biden. https://t.co/mXGi2ay8J7 pic.twitter.com/PjtZaVPQ16

— Trump War Room – Text TRUMP to 88022 (@TrumpWarRoom) October 14, 2020

Twitter has also been cracking down on other disinformation accounts like those connected to the QAnon conspiracy theory in the remaining weeks leading up to the election.