Twitter finally spoke about the blocking of accounts that spread information related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. They admit that it was a mistake and have now restored access to the accounts.
The blocking of these accounts was first noticed by Aric Toler, a researcher at Bellingcat, who saw the @667_mancer account inaccessible. It was one of the suspended open source intelligence (OSINT) accounts.
Then many other Twitter users also reported the loss of a number of OSINT accounts, which was caused by the mass reporting of these accounts. Twitter later admitted that this was their fault.
"We are proactively monitoring the development of narratives that violate our rules, and in this case, we are taking enforcement action against the wrong accounts," said Elizabeth Busby, a Twitter spokeswoman.
"We are continuously reviewing this action and are proactively restoring access to some of the affected accounts," he added.
The mass reporting of blocked accounts was carried out by an inaccurate 'coordinated bot campaign'. In his tweet, Twitter's Head of Site Integrity Yoel Roth explained that his moderation team made a mistake in their attempt to detect and delete photos and videos that are suspected of containing hoaxes.
OSINT accounts analysts and misinformation researchers often post edited photos and videos, with the original purpose of spreading misinformation. However, these accounts aim to straighten out the actual facts.
It seems that this is what the bots are using to do mass 'report as spam' reports against these accounts. The blocking of OSINT accounts is considered to be beneficial for Russia's military objectives in Ukraine.
Russia itself has often been accused of being behind various misinformation campaigns on social media, for example when they were deemed to be spreading misguided narratives during the 2014 annexation of Crimea.
They have previously carried out various cyber attacks on Ukraine, targeting a number of banks in the country as well as various government websites using DDoS attacks.