Twitter suspended hundreds of fake Chinese propaganda accounts that promoted the Beijing Olympics while glossing over human rights controversies

The New York Times and ProPublica investigation into Chinese Olympic propaganda resulted in the removal of hundreds of fake accounts.

The investigation found that many of the fake accounts that appeared to be coordinating to promote the Olympics by sharing state media posts with identical comments had a rosy vision of the Games.

Hundreds of accounts were suspended for violating the platform manipulation and spam policy, which prohibitscoordinated activity that attempts to artificially influence conversations through the use of multiple accounts, fake accounts and automation.

If there is clear evidence of state-backed information operations, our first priority is to remove accounts that are engaging in this behavior.

In a February 9 post, Spicy Panda pushed back on the boycott of the Beijing Olympics.

No matter how hard Uncle Liar uses its propaganda weapon to stain the Olympics, he can not stop the world from enjoying them.

—Spicy Panda (@SpicyPandaAcc) February 10, 2022

The New York Times reported that almost 300 fake-looking accounts reposted the cartoon, which received only 11 likes and two retweets. According to the report, irregular engagement like this is a strong indicator of inauthentic network Mobilization.

The movement #BoyBeijingcott2022 has been used around the world to protest China's human rights violations.

The Chinese Communist Party narratives related to the treatment of the Uyghur population in Xinjiang were amplified by a network of 2,048 accounts that were removed by Twitter in December.