Twitter suspends accounts of alleged black Trump supporters

Twitter on Tuesday said it suspended a group of accounts that claimed to be owned by African-American supporters of President Donald Trump and his re-election campaign due to spam and platform manipulation.

Twitter is investigating the activity and may suspend other similar accounts if they are found to be violating its policies, a spokesperson for the social media company said. The Washington Post first reported the investigation.

A review of some of the suspended accounts shows they often used stolen images to appear like real people and posted identical language in their messages, including the phrase: “YES IM BLACK AND IM VOTING FOR TRUMP!!!”

Some had attracted thousands of followers before they were suspended. The accounts sometimes claimed to be owned by military veterans or members of law enforcement.