Twitter reactivates account of American accidentally included in Russia crackdown

Twitter inadvertently included an American in the accounts it suspended in response to fake Russian accounts set up to influence the election.

The company reactivated Robert Delaware’s account on Monday, following a Motherboard report flagging the deletion.

{mosads}According to emails that Delaware reportedly provided to the website, Twitter took down Delaware’s account for being associated with spam. His Twitter handle, @RobbyDelaware, was one of 2,754 Twitter accounts suspended for being linked to Russian actors.

Delaware, who is an American, lives in the country of Georgia, which borders Russia. He says he has never been to Russia.

The House Intelligence Committee made the accounts public last week after Twitter turned them over to congressional investigators in advance of the hearings on Russian interference in the election.

In a memo released with the accounts, the Intelligence Committee said that they had been “identified by [Twitter] to be connected to the Internet Research Agency that impersonate U.S. news entities, political parties, and groups focused on social and political issues.”

It’s unclear how many other incorrect accounts, if any, may have been swept up in the deletions.

“We are confident in the methodology described in our written testimony to surface accounts associated with the Internet Research Agency. We encourage all Twitter users to take steps to reinforce security on their accounts, including enabling two-factor authentication, and to file a support request if they believe their account may have been compromised,” a Twitter spokesperson told Motherboard over email, when it first inquired about Delaware’s account being deleted.