Twitter says the accounts pushed ‘deceptive narratives’ on coronavirus pandemic, Taiwan and the protests in Hong Kong.

Twitter has removed more than 170,000 accounts tied to a Beijing-backed influence operation that spread messages favourable to the Chinese government, including about the coronavirus.

The company said on Friday that it suspended a core network of 23,750 highly active accounts, as well as a larger network of about 150,000 “amplifier” accounts used to boost the core accounts’ content. 

More:

• Call over: Zoom suspends US account over Tiananmen discussion

• NATO chief: UK review of Huawei’s role in 5G network is important

• ‘I’m never going to trade our values’: Australia PM on China spat

Twitter, along with researchers who analysed the accounts, said the network was largely an echo chamber of fake accounts that spread “geopolitical narratives favourable” to the Communist Party, focusing on “deceptive narratives” about Hong Kong, the coronavirus pandemic, exiled Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui and Taiwan.

However, the accounts “failed to achieve considerable traction,” typically holding low follower accounts and low engagement, Twitter said in a statement.

Twitter, along with other US social media companies such as Facebook and Instagram, is blocked in China.

Twitter said the Chinese network had links to an earlier state-backed operation dismantled last year by Twitter, Facebook and Google’s YouTube that had been pushing misleading narratives about political dynamics in Hong Kong.

Renee DiResta, at the Stanford Internet Observatory (SIO), said the network’s coronavirus activity ramped up in late January, as the outbreak spread beyond China, and spiked in March.

Source: Read Full Article