Twitter is saying nyet to Bernie Sanders’ theory that Russia could be responsible for the bad reputation of his “Bernie Bro” supporters.
The Democratic presidential hopeful — besieged by opponents during Wednesday’s debate over allegations of online bullying tactics by his fans — suggested that it could all be the result of foreign interference.
“All of us remember 2016, we remember efforts by Russians and others to try to interfere in our election and divide us,” he said. “I’m not saying that’s happening, but it would not shock me.”
Twitter, which has invested heavily in ridding its platform of bots and harassers over the past year, shot down the suggestion, saying in a Thursday statement that Twitter would have been transparent about any bad actors.
“Using technology and human review in concert, we proactively monitor Twitter to identify attempts at platform manipulation and mitigate them,” Twitter said.
”If we have reasonable evidence of state-backed information operations, we’ll disclose them following our thorough investigation to our public archive — the largest of its kind in the industry.”
Sanders’ campaign didn’t respond to Twitter’s statement on Thursday.
Sanders’ supporters were a focal point of Wednesday’s debate, with candidates taking turns throwing jabs on the subject.
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren said that candidates are “responsible” for their supporters, and said that corralling their worst impulses is “what leadership is all about.”
Pete Buttigieg, meanwhile, added to the pile-on by telling Sanders to “accept some responsibility and ask yourself what it is about your campaign in particular that seems to be motivating this behavior more than others.”
Sanders tried to tamp down on the accusations that he encouraged the bad actors, saying that “99.9 percent” of his campaign’s 10.6 million Twitter followers are good people.
“I disown these people,” he said of the tweeters who have given his supporters a bad name, including an incident earlier this week when they attacked Nevada trade union leaders. “They are not part of our movement.”
On Monday, Michael Bloomberg’s campaign released an ad highlighting insulting tweets by “Bernie Bros” directed at Bloomberg, including several suggesting “bad things will happen” to people who don’t “Vote Bernie.”