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Behind China’s Twitter Campaign, a Murky Supporting Chorus
NY Times ^ | June 8, 2020 Updated June 10, 2020 | Raymond Zhong, Aaron Krolik, Paul Mozur, Ronen Bergman and Edward Wong

Posted on 08/24/2020 5:39:35 AM PDT by narses

As the Trump administration lashes out at China over a range of grievances, Beijing’s top diplomats and representatives are using the president’s favorite online megaphone — Twitter — to slap back with a pugnaciousness that is best described as Trumpian.

Behind China’s combative new messengers, a murky hallelujah chorus of sympathetic accounts has emerged to repost them and cheer them on. Many are new to the platform. Some do little else but amplify the Beijing line.

No doubt some of these accounts are run by patriotic, tech-savvy Chinese people who get around their government’s ban on Twitter and other Western platforms. But an analysis by The New York Times found that many of the accounts behaved with a single-mindedness that could suggest a coordinated campaign of the type that nation states have carried out on Twitter in the past.

Of the roughly 4,600 accounts that reposted China’s leading envoys and state-run news outlets during a recent week, many acted suspiciously, The Times found. One in six tweeted with extremely high frequency despite having few followers, as if they were being used as loudspeakers, not as sharing platforms.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; US: District of Columbia
KEYWORDS:

1 posted on 08/24/2020 5:39:35 AM PDT by narses
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To: narses

So these Chinese Twitterers are interfering in a US election against Trump? I’m sure 60 Minutes will be right on that. Real soon now.


2 posted on 08/24/2020 5:45:16 AM PDT by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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To: narses

“ No doubt some of these accounts are run by patriotic, tech-savvy Chinese people who get around their government’s ban on Twitter and other Western platforms. ”

Yeah, right. They have to break the Chinese BAN yet they are so very patriotic. Sure.


3 posted on 08/24/2020 5:49:01 AM PDT by jdsteel (Americans are Dreamers too!!!)
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Arthur Wildfire! March; Berosus; Bockscar; cardinal4; ColdOne; ...

4 posted on 08/24/2020 10:24:14 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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