Twitter acquires start-up to spot network manipulation

In a bid to detect network manipulation in time, micro-blogging site Twitter has acquired London-based start-up Fabula AI. "We are excited to announce that we have acquired Fabula AI, a London-based start-up, with a world-class team of Machine Learning (ML) researchers who employ graph deep learning to detect network manipulation," Parag Agrawal, Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Twitter, wrote in a blog post on Monday. The acquisition announcement came after Twitter claimed it took down over 2,800 fake accounts linked to Iran in May. 

According to a report released by US cybersecurity firm FireEye, some Twitter accounts were posing as US Republican Congressional candidates to push pro-Iranian political messaging, CNET reported. In a blog post, the London-based start-up said its Geometric Deep Learning technology has high success rates of spotting fake news. The Fabula AI team would join the Twitter team to stop spam and abuse and other strategic priorities in the future.

"We work to help people feel safe on Twitter and help them see relevant information. Specifically, by studying and understanding the Twitter graph, comprised of millions of tweets, re-tweets and likes shared on Twitter every day, we will be able to improve the health of the conversation, as well as products including the timeline, recommendations, the explore tab and the onboarding experience," Agrawal said in the blog post.