Washington : Twitter has turned over to the US Senate 201 profile names of accounts associated with alleged Russian effort to meddle in the presidential election last year.

The handover took place this week, Xinhua quoted US media reports saying on Friday. It was part of the social networking service’s effort to aid in the Russian probe.

Those handles were previously not submitted partly due to legal privacy issues, the reports said.

The move came after critics said that the tech giant was not taking the congressional probe seriously enough.

Twitter was also criticised for reportedly deleting tweets and other user data useful to investigators looking into Moscow’s suspected manipulation of the social media service during the 2016 election.

The Senate has invited Twitter, along with Facebook and Google, to a public hearing set for November 1.

—IANS