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In Secret Chats, Trolls Struggle to Get Twitter Disinformation Campaigns Off the Ground

"Were they really banning people for saying [vote on] November 7? Lol, whoops"

A far-right troll told others that he was immediately banned from Twitter for deliberately sharing the wrong election date, according to NBC News, which had a reporter mistakenly added to trolls' private chats online.

"Were they really banning people for saying [vote on] November 7? Lol, whoops," wrote the user, whose name was a racist joke about Native Americans.

Twitter has stepped up its efforts to counter misinformation efforts on the platform that were rampant in 2016, when politically motivated trolls and a Russian influence campaign thrived.

Automatic steps Twitter's taken to enforce troll activity are "the type of proactive behavior we need to see more of" from social media companies, said Nina Jankowicz, a disinformation researcher at the Wilson Center's Kennan Institute.

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