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      Twitter Inc. (TWTR) halts Thai royalist account related to influence campaign - Stocks Telegraph

      By Hasnain R

      Published on

      November 30, 2020

      6:26 PM UTC

      Twitter Inc. (TWTR) halts Thai royalist account related to influence campaign - Stocks Telegraph

      A Thai pro-royalist account connected to the palace was suspended by Twitter Inc. (TWTR), which was found to be affiliated to thousands of others created in recent weeks, sharing messages in support of King Maha Vajiralongkorn and the monarchy.

      It was found tens of thousands of tweets that seemed to be from accounts exacerbating royalist messaging in a bid to fight a month-long political campaign that swelled by questioning the monarchy from criticizing the establishment to violating a long-standing taboo.

       Documents of internal military preparation revealed signs of a concerted propaganda operation aimed at disseminating positive information and discrediting critics.

      The role of social media in propelling the protest movement has been quoted by demonstrators and royalists, which has been the greatest threat to the monarchy and the government of former junta chief Prayuth Chan-ocha in decades.

      Formed in September, until its termination, the @jitarsa school account had more than 48,000 followers.

      A Twitter spokesperson said on Sunday, “The account in question was suspended for violating our rules on spam and platform manipulation.” She said the suspension was in accordance with the policy of the organization and not a consequence of the request for comment from Reuters.

      The profile of the account said it qualified individuals for the Royal Volunteers scheme, which is run by the Royal Office. The Twitter account is also described as its own by a Facebook page for the Royal Volunteers Academy, which publishes pro-monarchy videos and program news.

      More than 80% of the accounts that follow @jitarsa school have also been generated since the beginning of September, according to the reports. A survey of 4,600 of the newly formed accounts revealed that the royalist hashtags were all advertised, an indicator of the sort of behavior that would not be related to normal Twitter Inc. (TWTR) users.

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