The social network us Twitter will close tens of thousands of accounts of propaganda and disinformation related to the chinese government, his fellow countryman Zoom grateful for its part to have acceded to demands for Beijing to suspend the United States and Hong Kong accounts of defenders of human rights.
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Twitter, like YouTube, Google and Facebook, is banned in China, as well as a “Great wall computer” to block unwanted content. But diplomats and chinese State media are flooding these platforms messages. Friday, Twitter announced that it had disabled a “kernel” of 23,750 accounts related to China and relayed by some 150.000 other accounts as”amplifiers”. The contents have been saved to the scientific research.
Propaganda online
The network has been discovered with the tools put in place in August to clear the accounts linked to Beijing during the protests, pro-democracy in Hong Kong. This network published tweets, mainly chinese and, likely, for the diaspora is “spreading theories of geopolitical favourable to the chinese communist Party, supporting theories misleading on the political dynamics in Hong Kong,” explains Twitter in a analysis note.
These thousands of accounts have also served to promote the views of Peking on the fight against the coronavirus, and the manifestations of racism in the United States for “creating the perception of a moral equivalence with the repression of the demonstrations in Hong Kong”, according to the reflection group australian Aspi (Australian Strategic Policy Institute) has analyzed.
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“While the chinese communist Party does not allow chinese people to use Twitter, our analysis shows that it does not hesitate to use it to spread propaganda and misinformation at the international level,” said one responsible for the Aspi, Fergus Hanson. Most of the tweets were written during the working hours of the chinese, especially during the week, which “suggests clearly a lack of authenticity and coordination,” according to the Aspi.
In may, Twitter had placed a warning inviting them to check out the facts on a tweet a spokesman of the chinese government, taking up a thesis and conspiracy, according to which the american army could have introduced the new coronavirus in China. This mass deletion of accounts is the second attack in a year, technology companies in the united states for counter-networks of influence attributed to the chinese government.
pressing Issues
In August 2019, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter were already deleted thousands of accounts to counter a broad campaign by the chinese authorities of discrediting the mobilization pro-democracy in Hong Kong. The chinese ministry of foreign Affairs had assured him “not to be aware of the situation”.
In its announcement Friday, Twitter adds that it has closed 7.340 accounts related to Turkey, a network detected early 2020 and mainly devoted to the promotion of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the ruling party, and 1152 linked to Russia, which promoted the ruling party and attacked its critics.
The attitude adopted by the platforms western towards the carried out and the demands of authoritarian governments, whose countries also represent large markets, which raises questions more urgent. The application of video conference, Zoom lens, popularized during the containment linked to the coronavirus, is found at the heart of concerns about freedom of expression.
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Thursday evening, the california-based company acknowledged that it had acceded to the requests of Beijing to close three accounts of important activists of human rights in the United States and Hong Kong who wanted to commemorate the crackdown on deadly chinese in Tiananmen square against the protests pro-democracy in June 1989, an episode taboo in China.
To Zoom, this response “was a failure” and “would not have had to touch users outside of mainland China”. The accounts have been reactivated and Zoom provides tools to comply only in their countries, requests from governments to stop activities they consider illegal. “Zoom will not allow the demands of the chinese government to have an impact on anyone outside of mainland China”, he assured.
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If zoom had existed during the period 1933 to 1945 we dare to imagine with that it would have worked.
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