Twitter deletes 170,000 accounts linked to China information operation accounts

Team Udayavani, Jun 13, 2020, 3:07 PM IST

Twitter has removed more than 170,000 accounts tied to the Chinese government, relating to influence campaigns from China focusing on Hong Kong protests, Covid-19 and the US protests

Twitter said the accounts were “spreading geopolitical narratives favorable to the Communist Party of China” and were removed for violating its platform manipulation policies.

Although, Twitter is blocked from access in China, the campaign was targeted at Chinese-speaking audiences outside the country in order to influence  the perceptions on issues such as the Hong Kong protests, Covid-19 and US protest

Sources claim, as per the analysis of 348,608 tweets between January 2018 and April 2020 by the researchers, most tweets were posted during business hours in Beijing between Monday and Friday, and dropped off on the weekends.

Most of the tweets contained images with Chinese  language text and the primary targets of the campaign were people living in Hong Kong, followed by broader Chinese diaspora.