Two Twitter accounts associated with the Arizona Senate’s audit of the Maricopa County 2020 election were suspended for violating the platform’s terms of usage.
The accounts @ArizonaAudit and @AuditWarRoom were suspended as of Tuesday. The accounts have operated since the start of the audit in late April. It is not immediately clear who runs the profiles.
Twitter said the accounts were permanently suspended for violating the platform’s rules on manipulation and spam, according to a company statement obtained by BuzzFeed. The company did not say when the suspensions took effect, however, it appears they occurred Tuesday afternoon.
The @ArizonaAudit account maintained nearly 100,000 followers before it was suspended, and it described itself as the official profile of the Senate liaison for the election recount, despite Senate audit liaison Ken Bennett’s past refusal to disclose who operated it.
ARIZONA SENATE AUDIT LIAISON TO STEP DOWN
JUST IN – Twitter has just suspended the official Arizona Audit and Audit War Room accounts. pic.twitter.com/R4hOXqflHa
— Disclose.tv 🚨 (@disclosetv) July 27, 2021
The now-suspended audit account claimed in a May post that “Maricopa County deleted a directory full of election databases from the 2020 election cycle,” calling it “spoliation of evidence!” That directory was later recovered by audit workers.
Arizona Senate President Karen Fann released a statement on Tuesday, saying, “it is imperative anyone working with the audit is required to adhere to the rules of not disclosing unconfirmed information.” Her comments came one day after Bennett confirmed to the media he told contacts outside the audit about sample ballot numbers from a third recount of Maricopa County ballots.
“It is irresponsible to disclose partial information to the media since they are not ‘confirmed’ facts until the audit is final,” Fann added in the statement.
The @AuditWarRoom account, whose owner is also unknown, previously posted misinformation regarding the 2020 election and has lobbed verbal attacks at Maricopa County officials and others critical of the audit. Five more “War Room” accounts have been established on the platform, urging audits in key 2020 battleground states. All of them have been suspended by Twitter.
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The Washington Examiner contacted Twitter but did not immediately receive a response.
