This archive report was first published on 12 June 2020.
June 12, 2020
Twitter has taken down a significant Beijing-backed influence operation that spread false messages about the coronavirus, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.
The company removed more than 170,000 accounts tied to the operation, which included a core network of 23,750 highly active accounts and a larger network of about 150,000 'amplifier' accounts used to boost the core accounts' content.
According to Twitter, the network was largely an echo chamber of fake accounts without much further traction.
The operation, which was attributed to China, focused heavily on Hong Kong, but also promoted messages about the coronavirus pandemic, exiled Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui, and Taiwan.
Renee DiResta, at the Stanford Internet Observatory, said the network's coronavirus activity ramped up in late January, as the outbreak spread beyond China, and spiked in March.
Accounts praised China's response to the virus, while also using the pandemic to antagonize the United States and Hong Kong activists, she said.
Open-source researchers at Graphika and Bellingcat had earlier flagged the re-emergence of the so-called 'Spamouflage Dragon' network, after it went dormant following the companies' takedowns last summer.
A Twitter spokeswoman said the network it removed was not related to what the U.S. State Department had identified in May.
Beijing's foreign ministry spokeswoman, Hua Chunying, said there was a need for Chinese voices with objective views as many platforms carried falsehoods about China.
“China is the biggest victim of disinformation,” Hua said.
