TWITTER TAKEDOWN

Twitter announced Thursday that it had deleted more than 170,000 accounts tied to a Chinese state-linked operation, saying the accounts were spreading deceptive information around the COVID-19 virus, political dynamics in Hong Kong, and other issues.

Almost 25,000 of the deleted accounts formed what Twitter described as the “core network,” while around 150,000 were amplifying messages from the core groups.

“In general, this entire network was involved in a range of manipulative and coordinated activities,” the company wrote in a blog post. “They were Tweeting predominantly in Chinese languages and spreading geopolitical narratives favorable to the Communist Party of China (CCP), while continuing to push deceptive narratives about the political dynamics in Hong Kong.”

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 China’s 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.