Twitter removes accounts discouraging midterm voting

Nov. 3 (UPI) -- Twitter deleted thousands of automated accounts the social media company accused of posting messages to discourage Democrats from voting in Tuesday's midterm elections.

Approximately 10,000 accounts were removed from September to early October after they were flagged by staff at the Democratic Party, Twitter confirmed with TechCrunch.

"We removed a series of accounts for engaging in attempts to share disinformation in an automated fashion - a violation of our policies," a Twitter spokesperson said in an email. "We stopped this quickly and at its source."

Twitter said the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee brought the issue to their attention, CNN reported.

"We applaud Twitter for taking this step to help ensure that voters get correct and timely information about how to make their voices heard on Election Day," DNCC chief technology officer Raffi Krikorian said in a statement.

Twitter said it believes the automated accounts were run in the United States, but would not share any details on what the accounts looked like or how they discouraged people from voting.