Twitter suspends 70 pro-Michael Bloomberg accounts citing its 'platform manipulation' rule

Twitter took steps to get rid of dozens of accounts supporting Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg on Friday for breaking its rules, according to media reports.

The social networking site claimed that the accounts violated its policies related to "platform manipulation."

In total, 70 accounts were suspended, the Los Angeles Times first reported. The profiles were said to be part of a concerted effort to blast the Internet with identical pro-Bloomberg messaging.

"We have taken enforcement action on a group of accounts for violating our rules against platform manipulation and spam," a Twitter spokesperson said in a statment.

The report said some of the accounts are suspended permanently, while others will have to verify who runs them before being reactivated. Many of the accounts in question were created in recent months and they posted the same messages, images, links and hashtags, the Times said.

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The former New York mayor previously hired hundreds of workers in California to post daily on social media in support of his political mission, the Times reports. The staffers receive $2,500 a month to post on their personal profiles, the publication said.

Bloomberg campaign spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told the Times that its social networking team wasn't trying to mislead anyone.

"We ask that all of our deputy field organizers identify themselves as working on behalf of the Mike Bloomberg 2020 campaign on their social media accounts," the spokesperson said in a statement.

Twitter's spam policy went into effect in 2019. It states that duplicative content and artificial engagement are off-limits. The policy is primarily meant to crack down on large-scale activity that misleads followers.

Facebook has taken a different approach to the pro-Bloomberg posts. For now, it lets the posts stay up, as it views them as "branded content," the Times said.

Follow Dalvin Brown on Twitter: @Dalvin_Brown.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Twitter removed 70 pro-Michael Bloomberg accounts breaking its rules