TECH

Twitter bans more than 170,000 profiles linked to China's communist government

Twitter reported on Friday (12/06) that it has canceled more than 170,000 profiles linked to the Chinese government that propagated disinformation campaigns targeting the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong, as well as disseminating anti-American advertisements.
After an analysis carried out together with groups of researchers, Twitter said that it dismantled networks associated with the Chinese government managed by a very active nucleus of 23,750 accounts, in addition to another 150 thousand profiles that functioned as "amplifiers" of this content.
"They tweeted predominantly in the Chinese language and disseminated geopolitical narratives favorable to the Communist Party of China, while pushing narratives about political dynamics in Hong Kong," said the social network in its analysis.

Platforms
Twitter was banned in China, as well as the platforms Youtube, Google, Instagram and Facebook, with the imposition of the so-called “Great Firewall”, which restricts access to news and information sites from outside the country. Even so, Chinese diplomats and the country's state press often use these means to spread Beijing's narrative.
In addition to spreading the Chinese narrative about the protests in Hong Kong, Chinese tweets also spread false information about the covid-19 pandemic and criticism of the Taiwanese government. Analysts and some Western governments have already warned of suspicions that China manipulates state-controlled profiles and accounts, disguised as normal users, to disseminate government views and spread misinformation
An analyst at the Australian Institute of Strategic Policies (Aspi), who studied the data before the announcement made on Twitter, said the Chinese profiles were critical of the American government's reaction to anti-racist protests in the country, in order to “create a perception of equivalence with the suppression of protests in Hong Kong ”.
"Our analysis shows that, while not allowing citizens to use Twitter, the Chinese Communist Party likes to use it to spread propaganda and misinformation internationally," said Fergus Hanson, director of Aspi.
The expert also noted that the Chinese network's posts were made, most of the time, during office hours in the country and on working days. This pattern, according to Hanson, "clearly demonstrates the non-authenticity and coordination" of the disclosure of false information.
The Twitter announcement came on the same day as the group-based Zoom app, followed demands imposed by the Chinese government and closed accounts for pro-democracy activists in the United States and Hong Kong. The platform, which gained millions of new users during the new coronavirus pandemic, was used to recall the regime's massacre at Tiananmen Square in Beijing.

360 Power Magazine-Brazil