Twitter Permanently Suspends 88,000+ Accounts in Saudi Arabia

The social network said in a blog post that its investigations traced the coordinated inauthentic activity to Saudi Arabia-based social media marketing and management company Smaat, which appeared to have created, purchased and/or managed the suspended accounts on behalf of—but not necessarily with the knowledge of—its clients.

Twitter said Smaat’s access to the social network and the accounts of its senior executives were permanently suspended, adding that the company managed accounts for high-profile individuals and government departments in Saudi Arabia.

Twitter Safety wrote, “Many of the accounts involved in the overall network employed third-party automated tools in order to amplify non-political content at high volumes.