Twitter Takes Down Three Pro-Trump Accounts For Spreading Disinformation

Twitter Inc TWTR took action on three accounts that were weaving a narrative surrounding African-Americans abandoning the Democratic party, NBC reported Thursday.

What Happened: 

The disinformation campaign was run purportedly by people claiming to be African-American and their tweets were shared tens of thousands of times in the past month, according to NBC.

One of the accounts used the handle @WentDemToRep and reportedly received 11,000 retweets on a single post, which claimed the user of the account shifted his party allegiance to Republican on account of the Black Lives Matter campaign.

The account tagged two other users using the handles @PeterGammo and @KRon619, both of which stand suspended, due to what a Twitter spokesperson said was, “specifically, artificially manipulative behavior.”

The allegedly-fake Twitter accounts used photos of African-Americans taken in one instance from the social media profile of a model.

Why It Matters: The posts on these accounts were copy-pasted hundreds of times by other accounts claiming to be operated by African-Americans, NBC noted.

Repeat copy-pasting to generate support is known as “copypasta,” which a Twitter spokesperson said has been on the rise in recent days.

“We've seen an increase in 'copypasta,' an attempt by many accounts to copy, paste, and Tweet the same phrase. When we see this behavior, we may limit the visibility of the Tweets,” a Twitter spokesperson told NBC.

The microblogging platform restricted a tweet from the president related to Mail Drop Boxes, where he alleged Democrats were using them to commit voter fraud, this week.

Trump earlier accused Twitter of electoral interference in May, after it began fact-checking his tweets.

Price Action: Twitter shares traded 0.15% higher at $40.45 in the pre-market session Thursday.