June 12 (UPI) — Twitter announced Thursday that it deleted more than 170,000 accounts associated with Chinse state-linked misinformation campaigns.
The social media company published an archive of 32,242 accounts related to state-linked information operations including three attributed to China, Russia and Turkey, adding that data from the accounts was shared with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute and Stanford Internet Observatory.
“Every account and piece of content associated with these operations has been permanently removed from the service,” Twitter said in a blog post.
Twitter said 23,750 accounts that comprised the core of the Chinese network were included in the archive, while 150,000 accounts designed to boost their content were removed but not added to the archive.
“In general, this entire network was involved in a range of manipulative and coordinated activities. They were Tweeting predominantly in Chinese languages and spreading geopolitical narratives favorable to the Communist Party of China, while continuing to push deceptive narratives about the political dynamics in Hong Kong,” Twitter said.
Another 1,152 accounts associated with Current Police, a media website “engaging in state-backed political propaganda within Russia” were also included in the archive.
“A network of accounts related to this media operation was suspended for violations of our platform manipulation policy, specifically cross-posting and amplifying content in an inauthentic, coordinated manner for political ends,” the company said.
Lastly, Twitter disclosed 7,340 accounts seeking to amplify political narratives favorable to Turkey’s AK party and supporting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
