Facebook, Twitter make election-related suspensions

Twitter and Facebook on Tuesday suspended several right-leaning news accounts for violating their policies.

The accounts had been recently created and were posting information about voting in the hotly contested U.S. election.

Twitter said the accounts had been suspended for violating its policy against "coordination," that is posting identical content while appearing to be independent, or engaging in what it termed other covertly automated behavior.

Meanwhile, Facebook suspended them for inauthentic behavior.

One account, @svnewsalerts, had added over 10,000 Twitter followers in the past week before being suspended.

The account frequently warned of election-related unrest and issues with voting safety and reliability.

It also pointed to claims of fraud by Democrats and called attention to President Donald Trump's rallies and speeches.

False or exaggerated reports about voting fraud and poll delays circulated on social media throughout Election Day, in some cases helped by Republican accounts and online publications.

According to media intelligence firm Zignal Labs, unfounded claims about closed polling stations and excessively long lines in Republican-leaning areas of hotly contested Pennsylvania received over 33,000 Twitter mentions.

And far-right sites Breitbart and The Gateway Pundit both published articles claiming "the steal is on" in Pennsylvania, racking up thousands of shares on Facebook and Twitter.

The FBI and the New York attorney general also said they were looking into a spate of mysterious robocalls urging people to stay home, which were reported in multiple battleground states.