It is unclear what the catalyst for the sudden plunged in Twitter shares - down over 6% since the open - but some have suggested concerns at a reinvigorated crackdown on accounts after a Putin-impersonating account with a million followers was deleted...

As AP reports, an unverified bogus Twitter account claiming to belong to Russian President Vladimir Putin has been suspended after going undetected for six years.

The account, @putinRF_eng, managed to attract more than one million followers and was mentioned in tweets sent by several high profile names, including former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, Kosovo President Hashim Thaci, and former Argentina president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. "We suspended @putinRF_eng for impersonation based on a valid report we received from Russian officials," Twitter announced. Earlier this year, the Kremlin confirmed to the Press Association that the account in question was not run by Mr Putin nor managed by a member of his team.

Is this why the stock is plunging?

Twitter Says It Suspended Account That Impersonated Putin



According to twitter “Impersonation on Twitter is a violation of the Twitter Rules”.



So half of twitter will soon be banned — zerohedge (@zerohedge) November 29, 2018

Additionally, we note that Fox News has boycotted the service for three weeks now.