Washington, Nov 4 (UNI) Twitter has removed thousands of automated accounts that were posting messages discouraging people from voting in Tuesday’s midterm elections.

Most of the accounts were posing as Democrats, Twitter said.

The reports cited a Twitter statement on Friday as saying the social media company had “removed a series of accounts for engaging in attempts to share disinformation in an automated fashion, a violation of our policies”.

CNN said the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee had alerted Twitter to the accounts, which were removed in late September and early October.

“For the election this year we have established open lines of communication and direct, easy escalation paths for state election officials, DHS, and campaign organisations from both major parties,” the statement said.

Twitter said it appeared the account network was run out of the United States, but did not provide details on how the accounts worked.

For months, Twitter has sought to eliminate automated and bogus accounts designed to manipulate the public conversation on Twitter, in response to concerns over Russian interference in the 2016 election.