Twitter secretly worked with the US military to amplify its propaganda across the Middle East despite promising to shut down state-run influence operations, according to an investigation based on internal company documents.
The files, first revealed by The Intercept, show how officials at Twitter helped give greater visibility to a network of accounts run by the US Central Command that aimed to shape opinion in Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Kuwait, and other places.
This was done through “whitelisting” accounts at the request of the US government, helping them evade spam filters and boosting their reach.
In one exchange with a Twitter employee, a US military official humorously suggests that it’s “tough to do web ops when you can’t Tweet!”
The exchange continued with the military official listing six accounts and requesting that some be verified through the “blue checks” and others “whitelisted” so they can “amplify certain messages”.
In total, officials requested that at least 52 accounts were given special status.
One account with the Twitter handle @yemencurrent would reportedly emphasise that US drone strikes in the country were “accurate”, a claim that has been disproven. The account has now been deleted.
It’s estimated that the US has killed at least 1,000 people in drone strikes over a period of two decades.
According to sources The Intercept spoke to, Twitter secretly introduced a new feature in 2017 that would cater specifically to the needs of the US military.
This meant that even if an account did not officially get a blue check, it would still gain the advantages of a blue check account without it being publicly visible.
The Intercept said Twitter did not respond to a request for comment.
Earlier this year, the US government was also accused of sponsoring a digital campaign on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other social media platforms targeting Central Asia and the Middle East to promote pro-western narratives.
