--- title: Twitter Suspended 70 Pro-Bloomberg Accounts for Spam description: Twitter confirmed to TIME that it has taken "action on a group of accounts for violating our rules against platform manipulation and spam." canonical: https://time.com/5789203/twitter-bloomberg-spam-suspended/ author: Madeleine Carlisle article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2020-02-22T16:26:14.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:52:15.871Z article:section: Politics og:title: Twitter Has Reportedly Suspended 70 Pro-Bloomberg Accounts for Violating Its Platform Manipulation Policy og:description: Twitter said the accounts violated its "rules against platform manipulation and spam" og:url: https://time.com/5789203/twitter-bloomberg-spam-suspended/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8d1080012ae9a938/698a0a904ee2623692317202/twitter-bloomberg-spam-suspended.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: twitter bloomberg spam suspended og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Twitter Has Reportedly Suspended 70 Pro-Bloomberg Accounts for Violating Its Platform Manipulation Policy twitter:description: Twitter said the accounts violated its "rules against platform manipulation and spam" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8d1080012ae9a938/698a0a904ee2623692317202/twitter-bloomberg-spam-suspended.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Twitter Has Reportedly Suspended 70 Pro-Bloomberg Accounts for Violating Its Platform Manipulation Policy > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=a01a4d29-d2cb-4b7c-a80b-b26bb7056bc8&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1)  by [Madeleine Carlisle](https://time.com/author/madeleine-carlisle/)  ## Madeleine Carlisle Feb 22, 2020 4:26 PM UTC  Democratic presidential candidate, former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg speaks to supporters at a rally on February 20, 2020 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Democratic presidential candidate, former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg speaks to supporters at a rally on February 20, 2020 in Salt Lake City, Utah. George Frey—Getty Images  by [Madeleine Carlisle](https://time.com/author/madeleine-carlisle/)  ## Madeleine Carlisle Feb 22, 2020 4:26 PM UTC On Friday, Twitter began suspending 70 pro-Bloomberg accounts for violating a company policy put in place in response to the 2016 election, according to [the Los Angeles _Times_](https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/story/2020-02-21/twitter-suspends-bloomberg-accounts?%5Famp=true&%5F%5Ftwitter%5Fimpression=true). In a statement to TIME, Twitter confirmed that it has “taken enforcement action on a group of accounts for violating our rules against [platform manipulation and spam.”](https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/platform-manipulation) Some accounts will be permanently suspended and others will have to go through steps to verify their owners. The suspended accounts, [first reported on by the _Times_](https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/story/2020-02-21/twitter-suspends-bloomberg-accounts?%5Famp=true&%5F%5Ftwitter%5Fimpression=true), usually used identical language and images in each tweet and many only began a few months. When the _Times_ asked Twitter about the accounts, Twitter determined that they violated their “Platform Manipulation and Spam Policy.” The tech giant’s [rules](https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/platform-manipulation) state that “You can’t artificially amplify or disrupt conversations through the use of multiple accounts.” This includes creating multiple accounts to post the same content, and “coordinating with or compensating others to engage in artificial engagement or amplification, even if the people involved use only one account.” Twitter put the rules in place in 2019 in response to efforts by Russian accounts to influence American voters during the 2016 election. The [Bloomberg](https://time.com/5788779/warren-bloomberg-ndas-contract/) campaign has launched an extensive digital push for the former New York City mayor, who officially joined the presidential race in November. The campaign has hired hundreds of “deputy digital organizers” to promote Bloomberg to their contacts and on social media, [according to the Wall Street _Journal_.](https://www.wsj.com/articles/bloomberg-bankrolls-a-social-media-army-to-push-message-11582127768) These staffers reportedly make $2,500 a month. Some organizers use the app Outvote, an app that allows users to share content within their network and send pre-written text. In a statement to TIME, Senior National Spokesperson for the Bloomberg campaign Sabrina Singh said, “We ask that all of our deputy field organizers identify themselves as working on behalf of the Mike Bloomberg 2020 campaign on their social media accounts. Through Outvote content is shared by staffers and volunteers to their network of friends and family and was not intended to mislead anyone.” While these “deputy digital organizers” could be the owners of some of the suspended accounts, the _Times_ reports that some accounts could belong to unpaid Bloomberg volunteers or supporters. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5789203/twitter-bloomberg-spam-suspended/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5789203/twitter-bloomberg-spam-suspended/"},"headline":"Twitter Has Reportedly Suspended 70 Pro-Bloomberg Accounts for Violating Its Platform Manipulation Policy","datePublished":"2020-02-22T16:26:14.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:52:15.871Z","description":"Twitter said the accounts violated its \"rules against platform manipulation and spam\"","url":"https://time.com/5789203/twitter-bloomberg-spam-suspended/","keywords":["2020 Election","Tech","twitter","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8d1080012ae9a938/698a0a904ee2623692317202/twitter-bloomberg-spam-suspended.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Madeleine Carlisle","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/madeleine-carlisle/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8d1080012ae9a938/698a0a904ee2623692317202/twitter-bloomberg-spam-suspended.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"twitter bloomberg spam suspended","caption":"twitter bloomberg spam suspended","creditText":"George Frey—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2020-election/","name":"2020 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5789203/twitter-bloomberg-spam-suspended/","name":"Twitter Has Reportedly Suspended 70 Pro-Bloomberg Accounts for Violating Its Platform Manipulation Policy"}}]}] ```