The Washington Post is reporting that major Chinese cities have become filled with escort services, porn, and gambling that are obscuring reports about a wave of protests that have gripped the country. As of this writing, there are more searches for "" (Beijing) or "" (Shanghai) than there are for the protesters.
According to an analysis by Alex Stamos of the internet observatory, over 95 percent of the Beijing search term is from fake accounts, with over 70 percent of the accounts only having started using the account recently. Every few seconds, new accounts are being added to the list of accounts that are being used to spread false information.
Protestors in China are using a virtual private network to access Western services to coordinate their efforts due to the government's suppression of Chinese media. The amount of government-linked accounts making it harder to find legitimate and useful information about the protests makes it more difficult for people outside the country to get on-the-ground information. People present at the protests in China are being told to remove photos from their phones, according to the report.
The zero-covid strategy of China has resulted in rolling lock downs in an attempt to control the spread of the virus. Protests erupted after a recent apartment fire killed 10 people and injured nine more. Covid restrictions prevented residents from leaving the compound that was affected by the fire, according to one resident.
The trust and safety team at the social media company was heavily impacted by the layoffs after it was taken over by Musk. One ex-employee told the Washington Post that the problem was known and dealt with manually. The ex-employee said that all the China influence operations and analysts at the company resigned after Musk acquired the company.
Without mentioning the specifics of the China protests, Musk said early on Monday morning that the amount of pro psy ops on social media is ridiculous and joked that they would pay $8 for the privilege. The image of the Frog was accompanied by the slogan "I don't care about this particular psyop, honestly"
The company didn't respond to a request for comment, but is widely reported to have dissolved its press office. A current employee of the company told The Washington Post that the company is aware of the situation and is fixing it.
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