Twitter removed thousands more Chinese propaganda accounts

Since 2018, Twitter has frequentlydisclosed the results of its efforts to shut down networks of accounts with ties to state propaganda campaigns. The company said it has suspended or removed another 3,465 accounts connected to eight operations in six countries.

Most of the accounts were suspended for violating platform manipulation and spam policies. All content linked to the campaigns has been scrubbed.

By far the biggest network of accounts Twitter removed this time around was one that “amplified Chinese Communist Party narratives related to the treatment of the Uyghur population in Xinjiang.” It detected and took action against 2,048 such accounts. The company also took down 112 accounts linked to Changyu Culture, a company that's backed by the regional government of Xinjiang. 

A network of 418 accounts found to be participating in “coordinated inauthentic activity” that supported the president of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, and his National Resistance Movement party is gone. So too is a group of 276 “inauthentic” accounts that mainly shared content supporting Mexican government actions linked to political parties and public health.

Elsewhere, Twitter removed 277 accounts that promoted the views of the Venezuelan government. It suspended an app called Twitter Patria, which it says people connected to the removed accounts were using.

Gone too are 268 accounts that were filing bad-faith reports against civil rights group FichuaTanzania, its founder and members and supporters. Some of those were tweeting pro-government messages as well. Lastly, Twitter says it removed two batches of accounts connected to Russia — 16 that promoted a pro-Russia perspective in the Central African Republic, and 50 that criticized the civic Libyan government and promoted Russia’s geopolitical position there and in Syria.

Since it started disclosing its efforts against state-linked manipulation campaigns three years ago, Twitter says it has removed more than 200 million tweets and nine terabytes of media connected to them. The company has taken action against operations originating in 17 countries.

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