X says it has suspended more than 13,000 accounts that it believes were part of three foreign influence operations aimed at US political conversation ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. The company linked the networks to Iran, Russia and China.
The attribution is X’s own. X has not published evidence to support it, as The Register pointed out.
What X said
X made the announcement in a post from its @GlobalAffairs account on Wednesday evening, 14 October 2026.
“Through proactive sweeps and investigations, X recently identified and suspended more than 13,000 accounts involved in three suspected foreign influence operations linked to Iran, Russia, and China that targeted US political conversation,” the post says.
It adds: “The networks used inauthentic accounts to post and amplify content about US politics, targeting candidates and public figures across the political spectrum.”
X did not say how many accounts belonged to each operation, how long they had been active, or how many people saw their posts.
How X says it finds these networks
According to the post, X’s Safety team “uses a variety of detection methods to proactively find and act on activity that breaks the X Rules,” and these checks build on protections it runs all year round. X says its Authenticity Policy is “particularly important” to this work.
“Whether it is spam networks or entities engaged in influence operations, we are actively working to identify and stop coordinated inauthentic behavior that undermines the integrity of our platform,” X says.
“Coordinated inauthentic behaviour” generally means groups of fake or disguised accounts working together to make content look more popular or widely held than it is. X’s post describes the networks it removed in those terms: inauthentic accounts that posted and amplified political content.
Community Notes and Civic Integrity
The post also sets out X’s Civic Integrity policy, which X says covers misleading content that could affect participation in elections, “including content that may confuse people about how, when, or where to participate, or that aims to discourage participation.”
X says it relies on Community Notes, its crowdsourced system for adding context to posts, alongside platform moderation. When users report content under “Civic Integrity,” X says, the report is routed into a request for a Community Note. “In critical escalations, X may apply a Civic Integrity label to posts that violate our policy,” it adds.
“Our work continues through Election Day and beyond,” the post ends.
What The Register noted
The Register reported that X “provides no public evidence for attribution.” In other words, X has named the countries but has not shared the data behind that conclusion.
The Register also noted that Community Notes has faced scrutiny. When the European Commission opened formal proceedings against X under the Digital Services Act in 2023, it raised questions about how effective the feature is at checking whether posts are accurate, according to The Register. It added that X’s reliance on crowdsourced context follows layoffs and senior departures from its moderation teams after Elon Musk bought Twitter.
Other platforms are preparing too
Tech companies are setting out their election plans ahead of the midterms. TSN recently reported on how Anthropic says its Claude AI model will handle questions about the 2026 US midterms.
What we don’t know
- How X reached its conclusions about Iran, Russia and China.
- How large each network was, and how long it ran.
- Whether any US government agency has confirmed X’s findings.
What this means
- Thousands of accounts removed. X says more than 13,000 accounts were suspended across three networks.
- The attribution is X’s. X names Iran, Russia and China but has published no evidence.
- More moderation to come. X says its election work will continue through Election Day, leaning on Community Notes.
Sources
- X (@GlobalAffairs), post, 14 October 2026 (verified via the X API). https://x.com/GlobalAffairs/status/2110430142199644314
- The Register, “X purges 13,000 accounts linked to suspected meddling ahead of US midterms”, Connor Jones, 15 October 2026. https://www.theregister.com/security/2026/10/15/x-purges-13000-accounts-linked-to-suspected-meddling-ahead-of-us-midterms/5303234
