[Asia Economy Reporter Yujin Cho] According to a report by the U.S. economic media CNN Business on the 28th (local time), there is evidence that Chinese authorities manipulated Twitter search results so that searches for anti-COVID-19 lockdown protests in China show spam and pornographic content.
According to the report, since last week, when searching on Twitter in Chinese for major protest locations such as Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, and Guangzhou, pornographic videos or spam tweets are presented as search results. Many of the accounts posting these tweets are suspected to be so-called 'bot accounts' that neither follow other accounts nor have followers.
These tweets surged after a fire in an apartment in Urumqi, Xinjiang, China, on the 24th, which resulted in 10 deaths and 9 injuries. As suspicions arose that the delayed firefighting was related to the Chinese authorities' strict COVID-19 lockdown measures, protests against the lockdown have occurred in major cities across China. However, due to suspicious tweets, photos or videos related to the protests are not properly searchable.
When searching for 'Urumqi,' for example, numerous date spam tweets implying prostitution are tagged with 'Urumqi' and flood the search results.
CNN Business cited Chinese internet freedom activists saying, "This is happening not only in Xinjiang but also with all sensitive issues related to China," and "If you search for cities where COVID-19 cases have increased or where street protests occurred over the weekend, you can see the same phenomenon."
Since pornographic and prostitution-related content has been a primary focus of Chinese government internet censorship, the activist pointed out that it is unlikely to be the work of random individuals.
Twitter is officially blocked in China, but it is estimated that 3 to 10 million users access it through circumvention methods.
CNN Business stated that this will be a test of Twitter's response method, which has faced criticism for potentially becoming a platform flooded with hate and fake news after Elon Musk's acquisition.
The U.S. Congress has expressed concerns that Twitter could be exploited by foreign powers. China, Russia, and others have attempted and continue to attempt public opinion manipulation through social media platforms like Twitter.
Particularly, doubts have been raised about Musk's willingness to respond, given that Tesla, the electric vehicle company he operates, is developing its business with China as a key market.
Four months before completing the Twitter acquisition, in June this year, Musk claimed to Bloomberg News, "As far as I know, China does not attempt to interfere with the free reporting of the U.S. media."
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