TUESDAY, March 19, 2024
nationthailand

Facebook, Twitter remove China accounts for ‘misinformation’ about HK protests

Facebook, Twitter remove China accounts for ‘misinformation’ about HK protests

Twitter and Facebook are removing accounts from China they deemed to contain posts with misinformation intended to undermine the pro-democracy protestors in Hong Kong .

 

“We are disclosing a significant state-backed information operation focused on the situation in Hong Kong, specifically the protest movement and their calls for political change,” Twitter announced on its blog on Tuesday.

Facebook, Twitter remove China accounts for ‘misinformation’ about HK protests

It said the 936 accounts originated from within the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Overall, they were deliberately and specifically attempting to sow political discord in Hong Kong, including undermining the legitimacy and political positions of the protest movement on the ground, said the social-media site.

“Based on our intensive investigations, we have reliable evidence to support that this is a coordinated state-backed operation. Specifically, we identified large clusters of accounts behaving in a coordinated manner to amplify messages related to the Hong Kong protests,” Twitter said.

As Twitter is blocked in the PRC, many of the accounts were accessing Twitter using virtual private networks (VPNs).

However, some accounts were accessing Twitter from specific unblocked IP addresses originating on the mainland.

“The accounts we are sharing today represent the most active portions of this campaign; a larger, spammy network of approximately 200,000 accounts – many created following our initial suspensions – were proactively suspended before they were substantially active on the service.”

The accounts were suspended for a range of violations under Twitter’s manipulation polices – spamming, coordinated activity, fake accounts, attributed activity and ban evasion.

Facebook also removed posts for allegedly containing false information in order to mislead people about the Hong Kong pro-democracy protestors.Facebook said that today (August 20), it removed seven “Pages”, three “Groups” and five Facebook accounts involved in coordinated inauthentic behaviour as part of a small network that originated in China and focused on Hong Kong.

Facebook, Twitter remove China accounts for ‘misinformation’ about HK protests

About 15,500 accounts followed one or more of these Pages, and some 2,200 accounts joined at least one of these Groups, according to Facebook.

“The individuals behind this campaign engaged in a number of deceptive tactics, including the use of fake accounts – some of which had been already disabled by our automated systems – to manage Pages posing as news organisations, post in Groups, disseminate their content, and also drive people to off-platform news sites,” said the social-media giant.

“They frequently posted about local political news and issues, including topics like the ongoing protests in Hong Kong. Although the people behind this activity attempted to conceal their identities, our investigation found links to individuals associated with the Chinese government.”

RELATED
nationthailand