The Times said the action by X to scrub fake accounts is part of an ongoing effort to stamp out illegitimate platform activity. “We take reports like these very seriously, and continue to action millions of accounts per week for platform manipulation and spam violations,” said Dave Heinzinger, X’s head of media strategy, in an email to Epoch Times.
The Times did not say when it began its investigation into the matter. It said results of its findings were sent to X and the platform then began its review of the suspected bot network. Most of the accounts were subsequently taken down by X over the past several weeks. The Times also reported that at least one U.S.-based media outlet had some of its stories promoted by the connected fake accounts.