Twitter suspends account impersonating Russian president Putin

Symbol copyright Getty Pictures/PA Symbol caption It Is not yet transparent who created the fake Twitter account in the identify of the Russian president

Twitter has suspended an account that purported to be the legitimate English language feed of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The social media platform said it had suspended @putinRF_eng “for impersonation according to a valid file we won from Russian officers”.

The account used to be reportedly created in 2012 and posted mainly legit links to Mr Putin’s public appearances.

It had collected nearly 1,000,000 followers.

Many of its fans believed the account to be real, and it had featured in experiences by means of the BBC and others.

Symbol Copyright @TwitterComms @TwitterComms

There’s an reputable Kremlin Twitter account. It Is now not but clear who was behind @putinRF_eng.

This isn’t the first time Twitter customers were deceived via faux debts. Earlier this yr, an account in the title of yank investor Warren Buffett gathered some 2m likes for a tweet providing motivational recommendation for children. but the lack of a blue verification tick and the incorrect spelling of Mr Buffett’s identify alerted the eagle-eyed to the reality it used to be pretend.

Media captionAn creation to differing types of faux and false data