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Twitter provided Senate investigators the names of 201 Russia-linked accounts

Twitter provided Senate investigators the names of 201 Russia-linked accounts

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The accounts are linked to attempts to influence the 2016 presidential election

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Twitter on iOS 8, iPhone 6 (stock)

Twitter has turned over the names of 201 accounts to Senate investigators who are looking into Russia’s efforts to influence the last year’s presidential election, according to the Associated Press.

The AP says that the account names are “linked to Russian attempts at influencing the 2016 presidential election,” and that they were handed over earlier this week. The handles were reportedly not revealed until now because of legal issues. Last month, Twitter announced that it suspended nearly 200 Russia-linked accounts that spread propaganda and misinformation, some of which corresponded to similar accounts identified by Facebook.

Earlier this week, Politico revealed that Twitter deleted some Tweets “of potentially irreplaceable value to investigators,” in accordance with its privacy policies. The AP notes that it’s not clear if these new handles were among those that were deleted and that Twitter wouldn’t comment on the issue.

Twitter, along with Google and Facebook, is due to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee on November 1st, in which it will likely be grilled on how the social media platform was used to spread misinformation during the election.