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Twitter removes nearly 1,000 accounts tied to China's campaign against Hong Kong protesters
Earlier GD thread: Twitter ran paid ads from China's state news media criticising the Hong Kong protests
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Source: The Guardian
Twitter removes nearly 1,000 accounts tied to China's campaign against Hong Kong protesters
Company also suspends thousands of accounts as it reports ‘state-backed information operation’
Kari Paul in San Francisco
Mon 19 Aug 2019 20.45 BST First published on Mon 19 Aug 2019 20.02 BST
Twitter has removed nearly 1,000 accounts and suspended thousands of others tied to a campaign by the Chinese government against protesters in Hong Kong, the company announced on Monday.
Twitter disclosed a “significant state-backed information operation” originating from within the People’s Republic of China (PRC) targeting the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong. It removed 936 accounts and suspended approximately 200,000 accounts its investigation found were illegitimate.
“Covert, manipulative behaviors have no place on our service – they violate the fundamental principles on which our company is built,” Twitter said in a statement.
The company released an archive of offending tweets and accounts, many of which accused protesters of violence and being sponsored by western governments. “We don’t want you radical people in Hong Kong,” one deleted tweet said.
In addition, Twitter said it was banning all advertising from state-controlled news media entities. “Any affected accounts will be free to continue to use Twitter to engage in public conversation, just not our advertising products,” it said, adding that the ban would not apply to entities that are taxpayer-funded but independent.
-snip-
Company also suspends thousands of accounts as it reports ‘state-backed information operation’
Kari Paul in San Francisco
Mon 19 Aug 2019 20.45 BST First published on Mon 19 Aug 2019 20.02 BST
Twitter has removed nearly 1,000 accounts and suspended thousands of others tied to a campaign by the Chinese government against protesters in Hong Kong, the company announced on Monday.
Twitter disclosed a “significant state-backed information operation” originating from within the People’s Republic of China (PRC) targeting the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong. It removed 936 accounts and suspended approximately 200,000 accounts its investigation found were illegitimate.
“Covert, manipulative behaviors have no place on our service – they violate the fundamental principles on which our company is built,” Twitter said in a statement.
The company released an archive of offending tweets and accounts, many of which accused protesters of violence and being sponsored by western governments. “We don’t want you radical people in Hong Kong,” one deleted tweet said.
In addition, Twitter said it was banning all advertising from state-controlled news media entities. “Any affected accounts will be free to continue to use Twitter to engage in public conversation, just not our advertising products,” it said, adding that the ban would not apply to entities that are taxpayer-funded but independent.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/aug/19/twitter-china-hong-kong-accounts
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