Chinese Spam Accounts Block Covid Protest News With Porn Links on Twitter

Over the weekend, you might not have seen the shocking footage coming out of several major Chinese cities, with thousands upon thousands of protesters taking to the streets chanting " stand up" or " down with the Chinese president" You might not have seen the rare display of unity from the protesters around the same issues. You might not have seen the violent shows of force from police and other security forces.

There is a potential graphic content in this warning.

You didn't see this. The blue bird app was flooded with porn links that included the names of the cities involved in the protests. According to a report, past and current employees of the micro-messaging service say that it was difficult to combat the government-affiliated accounts that were trying to downplay the protests.

The Washington Post reported that Chinese-language accounts started to flood the platform with links to porn services and prostitutes. This would flood their feeds with porn ads for anyone who was interested in the protests. The accounts were inactive for a long time before being activated.

The efforts to screen information about the protests were confirmed by other China-focused reporters on the social networking site.

A former employee told the Post that China-linked accounts have used this tactic before, and that a lot of the work to combat this was done manually. It was difficult to respond to the threat because most of the Trust and Safety Team were axed in the last month or so. There was a threat that was identified by the company around midday Sunday, but it wasn't until late in the day that people began to see more protest footage.

Gizmodo reached out to confirm that, but the company no longer has a press team. There is no expectation of a response from us.

The campuses of the Apple factory in Zhengzhou were occupied by thousands of protesters last week. The workers were angry that the company lied to them about their pay and timetable, as well as being forced to live in dormitories with covid- positive staff. Despite China's attempts to control public information about government protests, many of those videos spread far and wide on social media.

This past weekend, the video of the New Zealand shooting ended up on the platform, showing how slow the response has been. The graphic video showing the terrorist attack where 51 muslim worshippers were shot and murdered was only removed Saturday night after New Zealand's government gave notice to social media. A spokesman for the New Zealand prime minister told The Guardian that the content was not flagged when it was uploaded.

There were reports that 10 people died in a fire in a building under covid lock down. It's important for social platforms to keep the lines of communication open because there are already reports of protesters being arrested and beaten. With automatic systems unable to handle fast- moving events from this weekend, it doesn't mean much for the future.