Twitter has suspended multiple fake pro-Schultz accounts since January: report

Twitter has suspended a number of accounts supporting Howard Schultz since January for violating the social media giant’s fake accounts policies, NBC News reported Monday.

When the former Starbucks CEO announced he was considering a 2020 presidential run in January a sea of Twitter accounts that seemed to span every demographic emerged supporting him.

A source told NBC News that six accounts, @blacks4Schultz, @women_4_schultz, @GaysForSchultz, @PresSchultz2020, @HowardJSchultz and @GOP4Schultz, have been suspended for violating Twitter’s fake account rules.

A representative from Twitter told The Hill that while parody and fan accounts are allowed on their site, the accounts in question were designed to spread misinformation or manipulate political conversations.

{mosads}According to the social media platform’s website, “Twitter accounts that pose as another person, brand, or organization in a confusing or deceptive manner may be permanently suspended under Twitter’s impersonation policy.”

Schultz’s team did not immediately responded to The Hill’s request for comment on the suspensions.

The creation of fake internet profiles to bolster a candidate “is as old as the internet itself,” Joan Donovan, director of the Technology and Social Change Research Project at Harvard University’s Shorenstein Center, told NBC News.

“The public is definitely still very hoaxable when it comes to people pretending to be an organization,” Donovan said. “It’s really hard, because if someone taps into a part of your identity or politics that is meaningful, especially when it comes to political platforms, we want to believe them,” she added.

Fake political accounts have proliferated in the last few years.

Russia’s Internet Research Agency operated thousands of accounts posing as Americans before the 2016 election in an effort to further polarize public opinion and elect President Trump, according to the Justice Department.

Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen paid a male consultant to create and operate the @WomenForCohen account to elevate his profile during the 2016 election.

Some of the fake-pro Schultz accounts seemed to be parody accounts.

The account @blacks4Schultz, which used a stock photo of a black man cheering as its avatar, garnered hundreds of mostly mocking likes and retweets for its post: “a tax on the ultra wealthy would be wiggity wiggity wack!!”

Austin Carter, 27, who ran @WomenForSchultz, told NBC News that he was inspired by the @WomenForCohen account.

“I thought @WomenForCohen was the funniest, most ridiculous thing,” Carter said. “At the same time, Howard Schultz was getting destroyed on Twitter and everyone was making fun of him. I wanted to get in on the fun.”

Far-right activist and Trump supporter Jacob Wohl created the account @women_4_schultz, which had few followers and one viral tweet disparaging Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.).

“It is not illegal, unethical or untoward for Americans to steer an American election,” Wohl told with NBC News. “I’m an American.” 

Some accounts like, @draftschultz and @draft_howard, seemed to be more serious about supporting Schultz, according to NBC News.

-Updated 4:50 p.m.