Twitter Removes Over 3,000 Accounts Related to State-Linked Information Operations

Ask a Twitter jock and youll hear metrics like "engagement" and "quality". Dig deeper and it comes down to the crude number of follows. "Oh, she has just xyz follows (and they are bots), I have a thousand more" might be the predictable metric.

Enter bots, fake accounts and an entire industry of troll farms.

So, when Twitter Thursday cut down what it called "state-backed information operations" gloom descended on the types who start their morning checking follower count.

Twitter's explanation was blunt and didn't involve the thriving bot industry in India, but six other countries.