Cyber-security officials confirmed that Twitter has deleted tweets and other data that have great value for investigators who are probing whether Russia manipulated the social media platform during the presidential elections last year. It is now believed that Twitter was one of the most powerful weapons that Russia allegedly used to help President Donald Trump get to the White House, unnamed officials confirmed for Politico.
According to the officials, unidentified operatives launched continual waves of pro-Trump and anti-Clinton story lines through Twitter and they were mostly false. That was made by creating automated bots, fake users etc. Investigators think that their hope for identifying the persons behind the operations are buried in the mountains of data accumulated by Twitter.
The investigators were analyzing that data in order to determine when the Russian operations began, but some analysts and officials say that great amount of information held by Twitter is lost forever. One of the reasons is the pro-consumer policy, according to which, when some user deletes tweet, paid promotion or account, Twitter does the same. Other reason, according to former FBI Executive Assistant Director Robert Anderson, is that Russian cyber trade-craft dictates that operatives immediately erase all of their digital breadcrumbs, Politico reports.
Some American professors blame Twitter for making it easy for Russia to hijack its platform and allowing them to erase their tracks only by hitting “delete.”
Twitter did not comment on how much data has been deleted. Previously the company has said that it is taking a look at Russia’s suspected use of the platform, but it has been far less accessible than Facebook for revelation of details.
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