Twitter Deletes 170,000 Accounts Over False Information

Twitter has removed more than 170,000 accounts that are China-related influence campaigns focusing on the Hong Kong COVID-19 and US protests regarding George Floyd.

The US company announced that 23,750 core accounts and 150,000 affiliate accounts that boost the content have been removed from the platform after they were linked to influence campaigns from China.

Researchers at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute have found that although Twitter has been denied access in China, the campaign has targeted Chinese-speaking audiences outside the country "with the aim of influencing perceptions on major issues, including the protests of Hong Kong, exiled Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui and COVID-19 as well as Taiwan related issues.

The researchers analyzed 348,608 tweets, which usually contained images of Chinese texts, finding that the campaign targeted Hong Kong residents, followed by the broader Chinese diaspora.

Up to 78.5% of accounts have no followers and 95% have less than eight followers, yet, these accounts were of a high level of non-organic participation. The research indicated the use of commercial robot networks. A total of 156 tweets from accounts without followers received more than 50 likes, and 26 tweets from accounts without followers received more than 10 retweets.

One method that researchers observed in accounts that were excluded from the dataset was legitimate legacy accounts that were hacked or purchased and then used as part of the campaign.

For example, an account changed his image from a Bangladeshi man to a Chinese woman and suddenly switched to publishing in Chinese in opposition to Hong Kong protests.

Also, ASPI researchers said the reused accounts on Facebook contributed a large portion of the activity observed there.

The main topics of the tweets were about violent Hong Kong protests, and that the United States was interfering into these protests, as well as Taiwan elections, and positive tweets about the Chinese good response to the pandemic.

Although these accounts were removed, researchers found that campaigns were continuing on Twitter and Facebook through their remapped accounts and new ones.

The focus has now shifted to "Black Lives Matter" protests in the United States, accusing the US of hypocrisy for criticizing the police response to the protests in Hong Kong, while the US police and forces themselves use violence against protests in the US, and warns protesters in Hong Kong against believing that they can count on the United States against Chinese interests.

ASPI also found that campaign operators also seem to have sought to engage heavily on some tweets to boost them to the top of Twitter's search for specific hashtags.

Meanwhile, Twitter also posted details of 1,152 accounts linked to the promotion of Russian-backed political advertising, and 7,340 promotional accounts for the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his political party.

Australian researchers this month found that thousands of pro-Trump and Republican accounts or QAnon were reinforcing misinformation about the origin of the COVID-19  at the emergence of the epidemic.