Yesterday, the social media giant removed 170,000 accounts from its platform. According to the team, the accounts were closely affiliated with the chines government. The accounts were involved in spreading deceptive information regarding the outspread of COVID-19. The accounts actively discussed other issues like political dynamics in Hong Kong and several other socio-political issues.
The task was done along with the researchers who stated that 23,750 accounts were highly active whereas 150,000 accounts are amplifier accounts that used to promote the content of previously stated accounts.
In mainland china twitter along with Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp have been blocked in China. A mass population uses these social media platforms via a VPN in the country. The accounts were analyzed by Stanford Internet Observatory or SIO. These accounts were operational since January of this year and with the highest activity range in March.
The content from these accounts was mainly about the response of China regarding COVID-19. With no information in bio and less than 10 followers, the accounts posted content about 350,000 times before it was shut down.
Apart from that the Social media giant also deleted some accounts that were linked with Russia and Turkey. The accounts were lesser in number when compared with China. For discussing this issue, Twitter will conduct a meeting in months to come which will be chaired by industrial experts, and government officials for discussing opportunities for collaboration.
The director of Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab Graham Brookie said: “China has, especially over the last year and a half in response to Taiwan’s elections and the Hong Kong protests, shown an increasing willingness to be aggressive with its online influence operations.
Previously Twitter removed some accounts that were linked with groups that criticized the Turkish President Erdogan and the Turkish Government. Those accounts go hacked repeatedly and compromised by the state actors
