Twitter removes China-linked accounts spreading false news

London, June 12

Twitter has eliminated an enormous community of accounts that it says is linked to the Chinese authorities and have been pushing false data beneficial to the nation’s communist rulers. Beijing denied involvement on Friday and mentioned the corporate ought to as a substitute take down accounts smearing China.

The US social media firm suspended 23,750 accounts that have been posting pro-Beijing narratives, and one other 150,000 accounts devoted to retweeting and amplifying these messages.

The community was engaged “in a range of coordinated and manipulated activities” in predominantly Chinese languages, together with reward for China’s response to the coronavirus pandemic and “deceptive narratives” about Hong Kong pro-democracy protests, the corporate mentioned.

The accounts additionally tweeted about two different subjects: Taiwan and Guo Wengui, an exiled billionaire waging a marketing campaign from New York in opposition to China’s president and celebration chief Xi Jinping and his administration. Most had little to no followers and didn’t get a lot consideration. The accounts have been suspended underneath Twitter’s manipulation insurance policies, which ban synthetic amplification and suppression of data.

Twitter and different social media providers corresponding to Facebook and YouTube are blocked in China.

“While the Chinese Communist Party won’t allow the Chinese people to use Twitter, our analysis shows it is happy to use it to sow propaganda and disinformation internationally,” mentioned Fergus Hanson, director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s International Cyber Policy Centre, which labored with the corporate on the takedown.

China denied involvement.

“It holds no water at all to equate China’s response to the epidemic with disinformation,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying mentioned at a every day information briefing on Friday.

“If Twitter wants to make a difference, it should shut down those accounts that have been organized and coordinated to attack and discredit China,” she added.

Twitter additionally eliminated greater than 1,000 accounts linked to a Russian media web site participating in state-backed political propaganda in Russian, and a community of seven,340 pretend or compromised accounts used for “cheerleading” the ruling celebration in Turkey. AP