Twitter removed 170,000 profiles linked to Chinese political influence campaigns

(Patria) – Social network Twitter has removed at least 170,000 profiles that it believes are behind Chinese campaigns related to Hong Kong protests, Covid-19, and US protests in connection with the death of George Floyd.

The company announced on Thursday that it had removed 23,750 core profiles from the platform, as well as 150,000 'amplifier' profiles that spread content from the core profiles, after a connection to Chinese campaigns was established.

Researchers from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute found that, although access to Twitter is blocked in China, the campaign was aimed at Chinese people living outside the country 'with the intention of influencing perceptions of key issues including the Hong Kong protests, exiled Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui, and to a lesser extent Covid-19 and Taiwan'.

These researchers analyzed 348,608 Twitter posts between January 2018 and April 2020 and found that most were published during Beijing working hours from Monday to Friday.

The posts mostly contained photos with text in Chinese, and were mainly aimed at residents of Hong Kong, as well as the wider Chinese diaspora.

About 78.5% of these profiles had no followers, while 95% had fewer than 8, but the profiles had a high level of activity, albeit not organic. According to the research findings, this indicates the use of commercial botnets. 156 Twitter posts from profiles without followers received more than 50 likes, while 26 posts without followers were shared more than 10 times.

The posts mainly stated that the protesters in Hong Kong were violent, that the US had interfered in the protests, Guo was accused, the Taiwan elections were discussed, while China's response to the Covid-19 pandemic was enthusiastically praised.

Despite the removal of these profiles, researchers found that the campaigns continued on both Twitter and Facebook through previously hacked profiles that were restored for these purposes, as well as entirely new profiles.

The focus of these campaigns has shifted to protests in the US, with the country being accused of 'hypocrisy for criticizing the police response to protests in Hong Kong, while US police use violence against protesters in the US...'.

At the same time, Twitter published details of 1,152 profiles linked to the promotion of state political propaganda from Russia, as well as 7,340 profiles linked to Turkey's AK party, the British Guardian reported, while Guardian Australia sought comment from Twitter on whether it was undertaking similar analyses of these profiles.