{"id":882884,"date":"2026-10-15T06:46:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T06:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/882884\/"},"modified":"2026-10-15T06:46:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T06:46:09","slug":"x-suspends-13000-accounts-alleging-foreign-influence-ahead-of-us-midterms-cybersecurity-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/882884\/","title":{"rendered":"X suspends 13,000 accounts, alleging foreign influence ahead of US midterms | Cybersecurity News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The social platform says networks targeted US political conversation across the spectrum ahead of midterm elections.<\/p>\n

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Published On 15 Oct 202615 Oct 2026<\/p>\n

The social media platform X has suspended more than 13,000 accounts related to three suspected foreign influence operations<\/a> linked to Iran, Russia and China that sought to shape the political debate in the United States.<\/p>\n

The company announced the suspensions on Wednesday as it outlined measures ahead of the November 3 US midterm elections.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 2 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

X said its investigations found the networks used fake accounts to post and amplify political content targeting candidates and public figures \u201cacross the political spectrum\u201d.<\/p>\n

The company said it identified the accounts through \u201cproactive sweeps and investigations\u201d under its rules against spam and coordinated inauthentic behaviour.<\/p>\n

\u201cFree speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and we are proud that X is the global town square where these debates happen. Our job is to keep that conversation authentic, open, and safe,\u201d X Global Government Affairs said<\/a> in announcing the suspensions.<\/p>\n

Election Safeguards<\/p>\n

X also outlined rules against misleading information regarding how, when or where to vote in the US midterms, as well as attempts to suppress turnout and voter intimidation, including calls for violence near polling stations.<\/p>\n

The company said users can report election-related posts through the \u201ccivic integrity\u201d option to request a community note providing context. In urgent cases, X may also apply labels to posts that violate its election rules in cases requiring attention, the platform said.<\/p>\n

The announcement comes a week after OpenAI said it had shut down two alleged influence operations<\/a> from Russia and Iran that used ChatGPT to push fake journalist personas and run a \u201cthink-tank\u201d that covertly spread anti-Ukraine propaganda.<\/p>\n

X has previously acted against suspected foreign influence networks. In 2021, Twitter, as X was then known, said it had suspended<\/a> 238 accounts purportedly operating from Iran.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The social platform says networks targeted US political conversation across the spectrum ahead of midterm elections. Published On…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":882885,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,144,7257,1070,801,129,3,111,1206,108,21,19,22,20,25,256475,24],"class_list":["post-882884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-china","tag-cybersecurity","tag-elections","tag-iran","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-russia","tag-social-media","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-us-midterm-elections-2026","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=882884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/882885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=882884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=882884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=882884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}