The image is by Alex Castro.
A total of 2,160 accounts have been removed from the social network due to their links to Chinese regional and state propaganda campaigns. The accounts were trying to push back against the allegations of human rights abuses by the Chinese government against the Uyghur population.
The FichuaTanzania human rights group was harassed by a campaign that used copyright complaints.
A further 112 accounts were connected to a private company that was backed by the regional government, according to a report by the social media company. According to the analysis from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, one of the research partners which was shared information with, a lot of the propaganda was embarrassing.
According to research from the thinktank, each network put out over 30,000 tweets, often disputing evidence of human rights abuses, as well as attempting to push the Chinese government's version of events. The network had taken over and reused existing accounts, which is why the data analyzed from the campaign was linked to pornography, Korean soap opera content, and the like. Hundreds of the tweets were linked to an account with the handle "fuck" next, while others tried and failed to tag the former US Secretary of State.
Most of the accounts had a small number of followers, or none at all, and the overwhelming majority of their tweets had no engagement. The exception was when Chinese officials introduced them to a larger audience. It is unlikely to win over new supporters but is appealing to the base.
The operation linked to Tanzania appears to have been more sophisticated, although it involved a relatively small number of accounts. The pro-government network would take anti-government content posted by activists, republish it on an external website with a date that was pre-dating the original message, and then report the message to the social network, explained a researcher who worked on the report.
A pro-Tanzanian government network uses copyright reporting to harass activists. The scheme was intriguing. The scheme below is sylized.
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December 2, 2021.
The tactic sometimes worked, though both of the suspended activist accounts were eventually reinstated. It is difficult for the activists to end up in this situation since they might compromise the source of the anti-government material.
Mass internments, reeducation, forced labor, and even sterilization are said to be part of the treatment of the Uyghur population. In January this year, the US embassy locked its account on the micro-blogging site after it referred to Uyghur women as baby-making machines. The account is locked and hasn't posted a message since January 9th.
Mexico, Russia, Uganda, and Venezuela are some of the countries that have accounts that have been removed by the social media company.
