Posted on 06/11/2020 9:04:02 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Twitter announced Thursday that it had deleted more than 170,000 accounts tied to a Chinese state-linked operation that were spreading deceptive information around the COVID-19 virus, political dynamics in Hong Kong, and other issues.
Almost 25,000 of the accounts that were deleted formed what Twitter described as the core network, while around 150,000 accounts were amplifying messages from the core groups.
Twitter noted that the accounts taken down this week were tied to a Chinese state-backed operation last year that attempted to sow political discord in Hong Kong. Those accounts were also taken down.
According to an analysis of the accounts by the Stanford Internet Observatory (SIO), many of the accounts shut down were tweeting about the COVID-19 pandemic, with activity around this issue beginning in late January and reaching its peak in late March.
The accounts primarily praised Chinas response to the COVID-19 crisis. While most of the accounts had less than 10 followers and no bios, the SIO found that they had tweeted almost 350,000 times before being shut down.
Twitter on Thursday also shut down thousands of accounts tied to Russian and Turkish state-linked misinformation efforts.
The over 1,000 Russian accounts removed were tied to state-backed political propaganda within Russia, while the over 7,300 Turkish accounts removed were primarily spreading information favorable to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his political party
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
Credit where it’s due, I guess.
A drop in the bucket.
Did that include accounts linked to Antifa and Black Lives Matter?
I was getting a pro-China site popping up on FaceBook where I had no invitation or want of that. I declared them “offensive” for the reason of removal, not giving me the option of stating the truth of their being anti-American, pro-Communist propaganda I already get enough of from America’s own Democrat Party.
More concerned about what Twitter is doing to influence the election.
... A good start!
Misdirection. This establishes they are evenhanded. Guess who is next up for some attention? As in sometime around late September, early October... we are.
Let me guess, most of which were conservative voices..... /s
Since The Hill supports driving Trump from office with fake Twitter accounts, I wonder if this is a pre-look at a purge of legitimate MAGA accounts on Twitter, all under the guise of playing “fair” and deleting accounts falsely termed ‘bots’. But then, the left has made me cynical. :/
Did they delete the account of WHO?
Knowing Twitter, they probably shut down some key pro-HongKong zccounts, too.
What about the hundreds of thousands of pro-Duterte fake accounts, also on Twitter, also from Communist Chinese, interfering in Filipino politics? All in favor of an anti-terror bill, er permanent martial law? Get jailed and killed for criticizing the Government...
When as Americans do we delete twitter, Facebook, Google and others form our lives? when?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.