TWITTER has shut down a number of accounts which are supposedly being run by black Donald Trump supporters.
The social media giant said the accounts broke their rules on spam and platform manipulation.
It's understood that a number of the accounts in question sent out identical tweets, including the phrase: "YES IM BLACK AND IM VOTING FOR TRUMP!!!"
Twitter hasn't disclosed how many accounts it has shut down, but it's alleged that collectively, the accounts have attracted more than a quarter-of-a-million retweets or mentions prior to being suspended.
"Our teams are working diligently to investigate this activity and will take action in line with the Twitter Rules if Tweets are found to be in violation," a Twitter spokeswoman said.
They added that the investigation will continue and if any more suspicious activity is found, they may suspend additional accounts.
A number of accounts have been suspended by Twitter that claim to be black supporters of President TrumpDarren Linvill, a social media disinformation researcher at Clemson University in South Carolina, said he had been tracking the accounts since Saturday.
He claims he found more than two dozen accounts that collectively had 265,000 retweets or Twitter mentions.
Mr Linvill said all the accounts he had been tracking in the group had now been suspended by Twitter, but the damage had already been done.
‘It doesn’t matter if Twitter’s shutting you down in four days, they’ve already had their impact,’ he said.
Twitter forbids using the platform "to artificially amplify or suppress information or engage in behaviour that manipulates or disrupts people's experience" on the site.
The news comes just weeks ahead of the US presidential election on November 3.
Latest polls suggest that Mr Trump only has around 10% of the black vote in the country.
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