Twitter accounts operated by authoritarian governments in Russia, China and Iran are benefiting from recent changes at the social media company, making it easier for them to attract new followers and broadcast propaganda and disinformation to a larger audience.
The platform is no longer labeling state-controlled media and propaganda agencies, and will no longer prohibit their content from being automatically promoted or recommended to users. Together, the two changes, both made in recent weeks, have supercharged the Kremlin's ability to use the U.S.-based platform to spread lies and misleading claims about its invasion of Ukraine, U.S. politics and other topics.
