In response to an investigation conducted by Mozilla Fellows Odanga Madung and Brian Obilo, Twitter has removed 100 accounts responsible for a coordinated disinformation and harassment campaign against Kenyan journalists, judges, and other members of civil society. Twitter removed the accounts on September 3, less than 24 hours after the research by the Mozilla Fellows was made public.

“While we applaud Twitter for taking swift action to remove these malicious sock puppet accounts, the platform needs to make significant systemic changes in order to prevent these types of dangerous campaigns from taking place in Kenya and around the world,” said Madung.

"While we applaud Twitter for taking swift action to remove these malicious sock puppet accounts, the platform needs to make significant systemic changes in order to prevent these types of dangerous campaigns from taking place in Kenya and around the world.”

Odanga Madung, Mozilla Fellow

“The purpose of these disinformation campaigns is to hijack Twitter’s very own trending algorithm, which can amplify disinformation to millions of people,” said Obilo. “That’s why we are urging Twitter to take further action by pausing trends during key events like elections and by employing human moderators to ensure that disinformation does not make it to the top of the trending topics section.”

Read the full research report.