Chinese bots swamped Twitter with sexually explicit posts to stop the spread of news about the massive protests against Covid-19 lockdowns in the country. It is still happening, apparently! If you search for a large city in China – Shanghai or Beijing- using Chinese script on Twitter, you would see adverts about pornography.
Welcome back, I assume, you have searched it! Yes! I can understand your shock. Lets get back to the news. This is an apparent show to turn the global attention from the atrocities that’s happening in one of the largest populated country in the world. Read on to know more about the mass anti-lockdown protests happening in China.
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Why Chinese Bots Filled Twitter With Sexually Explicit Adverts?
Since we have all checked and found out that the sex advert news is true, let us now dive into know why this is happening. Chinese bot accounts which are not operated by humans are being utilized to flood the micro-blogging site with adverts for sex-workers, pornography and gambling, whenever any one searches for a Chinese city.
Some disinformation researchers say at first glance appear to be a deliberate attempt by the Chinese government or its allies to drown out images of the demonstrations, reports CNN. This is to cloak the massive protest happening right now in China against the Covid-19 lockdowns. Any posts from the accounts suspected of being tied to the government included URLs for escort services and sexual content, as well as city names.
According to CNN, searches in Chinese for major protest hotspots, including Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, and Guangzhou, produced a nonstop stream of solicitations, images of scantily clad women in suggestive poses, and seemingly random word- and sentence fragments. Reports suggest that the tweets did not follow any other accounts and had been created months ago with no followers of their own. According to the Washington Post, this served to limit knowledge on protests against China’s zero-Covid policy.
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Why Chinese Bots Attacked Only Twitter?
The director of the Stanford Internet Observatory, Alex Stamos noted that the Chinese actions represented their “first major failure” to prevent government meddling under Elon Musk’s ownership of Twitter. He further added that the steps looked to be intended to limit international observation of the protests because access to Twitter is restricted within China.
Last week, I discussed the risks @elonmusk was taking running with a skeleton crew with @ReedAlbergotti, including no threat intel team:https://t.co/8E45t6TbdA
— Alex Stamos (@alexstamos) November 28, 2022
Looks like we might have the first major failure to stop gov interference in the Musk era:https://t.co/AZXoGrXtqT pic.twitter.com/toMxCK95BR
Mengyu Dong, a journalist specialized in technology and censorship, tweeted, “Chinese bots are flooding Twitter with *escort ads*, possibly to make it more difficult for Chinese users to access information about the mass protests. Some of these acts have been dormant for years, only to become active yesterday after protests broke out in China.”
Chinese bots are flooding Twitter with *escort ads*, possibly to make it more difficult for Chinese users to access information about the mass protests. Some of these acts have been dormant for years, only to become active yesterday after protests broke out in China. for example: pic.twitter.com/QRYLQu09Pq
— Mengyu Dong (@dong_mengyu) November 27, 2022
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Is Twitter Compromised?
This apparent manipulation of Twitter by Chinese government sources comes after Elon Musk fired around half of the company’s employees including the members of the trust and safety team. In July, a whistle-blower claimed that foreign governments were regularly interfering with Twitter. Peiter Zatko, the company’s former chief of security, said he was aware of “multiple episodes” of Twitter being compromised by foreign intelligence services or being complicit in a threat to democracies.
The Twitter warning came as dozens of protests erupted across Chinese cities over the weekend, as anger over the government’s strict Covid restrictions erupted. Candlelight vigils and nonviolent street marches have drawn crowds ranging from the hundreds to the thousands. Protesters knocked over security barriers in some cities, including Wuhan, and battled with police in Shanghai. Protesters holding candles, phone lights, and blank sheets of paper have demanded the end of lockdowns and frequent mass testing.
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