Twitter and Facebook have taken similar action against state-sponsored propaganda by Russian and Iranian governments
Twitter and Facebook took cognisance of Beijing’s complicity in conducting disinformation campaigns against Hong Kong’s protest movement and suspended several accounts linked to the Chinese government.
This marks the first occasion when the social media giants have directly taken action against Beijing for spreading disinformation using their platforms. In the past, Twitter and Facebook have taken similar action against state-sponsored propaganda by the Russian and Iranian governments.
What Twitter did
Twitter issued a statement in a blog post saying it has suspended 936 accounts originating from Mainland China. The blog post also lists several examples of how the Beijing government has been conducting propaganda using the social media platform.
“These accounts were deliberately and specifically attempting to sow political discord in Hong Kong, including undermining the legitimacy and political positions of the protest movement on the ground,” read the statement by Twitter.
“Based on our intensive investigations, we have reliable evidence to support that this is a coordinated state-backed operation,” the statement further added.
In a separate statement, Twitter also said that it will no longer accept advertisements from “state-controlled media entities”.
Twitter’s statement further noted that “covert, manipulative behaviour” had no place in their platform and violated the “fundamental principles” of the company.
Facebook acted on a ‘tip’ by Twitter
Acting on a “tip” by Twitter, Facebook found and removed 15 pages, groups and accounts that were “associated with the Chinese government” and “focused on Hong Kong”.
One or more of these accounts had a following of over 15,000 on Facebook.
According to a report in the South China Morning Post, Facebook had found posts that “compared protesters to cockroaches, accused journalists of corruption and colluding with “rioters”, and claimed that agitators, not police, had been responsible for the widely reported injury of a medic “who may lose the use of one eye”.
Nathaniel Gleicher, the head of Facebook’s cybersecurity policy, told the press, “We will continue monitoring and take action if we find additional violations.”
Protests continue to grow
While global attention hovers over the Hong Kong demonstrations and the possibility of a military intervention by Beijing looms large, over 1.7 million people joined the protests Sunday. Essentially, a quarter of Hong Kong’s population have joined the protests, making it the largest such demonstration in the past few decades.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong police has said in a statement that the ongoing protests need a political solution and the government should begin by withdrawing the extradition bill.