Facebook and Twitter Have Accused China of Doing This

Social media giants Facebook as well as Twitter have accused China of running disinformation campaign against protestors in Hong Kong.

The two companies have suspended numerous accounts that are believed to be tied to a state-backed disinformation campaign that began inside China.

Facebook said that it had removed several pages, groups. as well as accounts that are involved in the activity.

Twitter said on Monday that it had terminated 936 accounts that are likely related to the campaign.

According to Twitter, the disinformation campaign was designed to “sow political discord in Hong Kong, including undermining the legitimacy and political protest movement on the ground.”

Twitter stated, “Based on our intensive investigations, we have reliable evidence to support that this is a coordinated state-backed operation,” the company said in a blog post. “Specifically, we have identified large clusters of accounts behaving in a coordinated manner to amplify messages related to the Hong Kong protests.”

In a blog post, Facebook wrote, “We have removed seven Pages, three Groups and five Facebook accounts involved in coordinated inauthentic behavior as part of a small network that originated in China and focused on Hong Kong. The individuals behind this campaign engaged in a number of deceptive tactics, including the use of fake accounts — some of which had been already disabled by our automated systems — to manage Pages posing as news organizations, post in Groups, disseminate their content, and also drive people to off-platform news sites. They frequently posted about local political news and issues including topics like the ongoing protests in Hong Kong. Although the people behind this activity attempted to conceal their identities, our investigation found links to individuals associated with the Chinese government.”

It added, “Based on a tip shared by Twitter about activity they found on their platform, we conducted an internal investigation into suspected coordinated inauthentic behavior in the region and identified this activity. We will continue monitoring and will take action if we find additional violations. We’ve shared our analysis with law enforcement and industry partners.”

This past weekend 1.7 million anti-government protestors had rallied in Hong Kong against the government in China.

Disclaimer: We have no position in any of the companies mentioned and have not been compensated for this article.