Twitter Deletes Over 170,000 Accounts Tied To Chinese Propaganda Efforts (thehill.com) 48
Twitter announced Thursday that it had deleted more than 170,000 accounts tied to a Chinese state-linked operation that were spreading deceptive information around the COVID-19 virus, political dynamics in Hong Kong, and other issues. The Hill reports: Almost 25,000 of the accounts that were deleted formed what Twitter described as the "core network," while around 150,000 accounts were amplifying messages from the core groups. "In general, this entire network was involved in a range of manipulative and coordinated activities," the company wrote in a blog post. "They were Tweeting predominantly in Chinese languages and spreading geopolitical narratives favorable to the Communist Party of China (CCP), while continuing to push deceptive narratives about the political dynamics in Hong Kong."
According to an analysis of the accounts by the Stanford Internet Observatory (SIO), many of the accounts shut down were tweeting about the COVID-19 pandemic, with activity around this issue beginning in late January and reaching its peak in late March. The accounts primarily praised China's response to the COVID-19 crisis. While most of the accounts had less than 10 followers and no bios, the SIO found that they had tweeted almost 350,000 times before being shut down.
According to an analysis of the accounts by the Stanford Internet Observatory (SIO), many of the accounts shut down were tweeting about the COVID-19 pandemic, with activity around this issue beginning in late January and reaching its peak in late March. The accounts primarily praised China's response to the COVID-19 crisis. While most of the accounts had less than 10 followers and no bios, the SIO found that they had tweeted almost 350,000 times before being shut down.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Where?!
I wish they would do this rather than deleting (Score:2)
Just create millions of fake likes and fake retweets and then don't allow any real retweets. That way the people behind these will pour all the efforts into amplifying these and make more similar ones and not realize for months that no one is reading their stuff.
Re: (Score:1)
I wish they'd delete (Score:2, Troll)
American government propaganda accounts.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
They just evolve. Donald Trump would take to skywriting. You'd see it in the sky one day without any context but you'd know straight away, emblazoned in the sky in purest vapour: "I'VE GOT THE BEST SKYWRITERS"
He still has his sycophants on Fox News. If the American public was not so gullible and would fucking suck it up when the facts contradict their beliefs, we would be much better off.
I have changed many of my beliefs when the facts contradicted them. After a while it gets easy. Having opinions based on reality makes life much more comfortable.
I just wish Republicans and the PC Liberals would get with the program.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Wait up, 170,000 accounts posted 350,000 times, a little over two post per account, I fail to see the spammy nature of those accounts. Now if they had posted, 350,000,000 times then maybe spammy accounts but if over a year that's only around 6 posts per day, so what's the big deal. Ohh, is just American racism, they are Chinese, how dare they express their opinion, they must all be government drones, ban the chinese. It looks bad, unless they messed up the numbers a lot, looks just like a mix of nationalism
Re: (Score:2)
I think you guys need to work on your next level propaganda promotion. While it's true the US is in the midst of a giant debate on racism, it's really about African Americans.
And which racist corporations would they be, maybe the one run by Satya Nadella or Sundar Pichai?
Re: (Score:2)
I think you guys need to work on your next level propaganda promotion. While it's true the US is in the midst of a giant debate on racism, it's really about African Americans.
Actually it started out as a debate about bad police procedure. The left got hold of it and warped it into a racial debate, and this morning I think it's about how trans women of color are affected by the existence of military bases named after Confederates.
Massive censorship (Score:2)
That is what it is. We're just taught to ignore it. 'just removing evil Chinese propaganda, nothing to see here'.
To half of the world it is very plain that China did a very good job in fighting the virus and in informing the world. Western countries on the other hand were very slow to respond and now , keeping in mind the old adage to scrutinize the mote in the Chinese eye while ignoring the beam in ones own eye' now is very concerned about how China may have lost a week where they could have informed us fa
Re: (Score:1)
Found the Chinese State Intelligence Agent.
Re:I wish they'd delete (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Why stop there? I wish they would just delete twitter.
Because going all the way like you suggest would only result in another shitty service taking its place. Don't be crazy to think that if a messaging board shuts down that people just give up communicating.
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah it could be worse. It could be that steaming pile called Gab.
Re: (Score:2)
Facebook was the last social media network I was part of and I shut that down 4 years ago due to the increased political BS. I do miss the ease at which I could share pictures and statutes with my family/friends that are spread out around the world.. but it just wasn't worth it.
Re: (Score:2)
Twitter and Facebook have had a horrible effect on America. We would have been far better off without them.
Joanna Hoffman, the former right-hand woman of Steve Jobs, says Facebook is ‘peddling in an addictive drug called anger’
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/1... [cnbc.com]
Re: (Score:2)
And British ones. We saw a lot of those during the last election in December. Twitter let the Tory Party get away with re-branding its Twitter account as some kind of fact checking org too.
Re: (Score:2)
And British ones. We saw a lot of those during the last election in December. Twitter let the Tory Party get away with re-branding its Twitter account as some kind of fact checking org too.
Fact: All *other* politicians are liars. The best thing about this is when more than one politician makes this claim it actually becomes true.
Re: (Score:2)
If they went after all the extreme left activists propaganda spewers, they'd just have to delete the entire site.
Oh don't be such a Debbie Downer. There will still be plenty of content, like actors and musicians. And people taking picture of whatever they're eating. Kind of like MySpace, but with actual traffic. /s
Better for all countries (Score:2)
Social media is for sheep (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
and not as a source of legitimate information.
What is a source of information if not something that you learn from someone? It's quite disingenuous to declare a communication method nothing more than a form of entertainment because you disagree with what a subset of its users communicated.
Mind you there is some actual entertaining value to some of those accounts. Accounts like those from comedians, the onion's official account, and @realdonaldtrump.
Re: (Score:2)
If they were going after the Chinese COVID-19 propaganda accounts, I assume they deleted the CNN and MSNBC accounts, also.
Why would they delete real sources of real news? Someone has to do it. The Fox tabloid and the Russian-backed OANN certainly aren't going to suddenly change and give their customers truthful information.
Us versus Them (Score:1, Insightful)
Re: (Score:1)
Because the Network Effect gives them an oligopoly, and if they become a mouthpiece of Xi, they'll look bad, AND risk antitrust anger.
Re: (Score:1)
Addendum: In my opinion it's better to mark the tweets rather than outright delete. It's a softer form of censorship.
What about the rest? (Score:4, Insightful)
Playing their game now. If China wants to be on (Score:1)
Stupid to just delete them (Score:2)
They'll just make more. Isolate them so they interact only with each other, and perhaps one could use them to ferret out more accounts as they're created - the equivalent of answering spam phone calls just to waste the callers time. The tricky bit is doing it so that it's hard to tell they're in their own separate world.
If Twitter ever deletes all propaganda accounts... (Score:1)
There will be only one account left: BringBackPropagandaAccounts
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Was it Russia, Russia, Russia? (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)