Twitter spam obscures news of COVID policy protest in China
You won't have much success finding information about the growing protests in China if you search the country's major cities on Twitter. As TechCrunch reports, analysts have noticed an increase in the number of bots peddling pornography and betting around such queries, just as protests have erupted in Beijing and other cities over the past for the past three days in response to China's "zero-COVID" policies. Spam makes it harder to follow rallies, especially for local activists who use Twitter over a VPN to avoid Chinese government censorship of domestic social media protests.
Twitter has effectively disbanded its communications team and hasn't officially commented on the matter. However, The Washington Post notes that a Twitter employee told a researcher that the company was "working to fix" the bot issue. It was easier to find news of the protests on Sunday evening, but spam still cluttered the results. A former staffer told The Post that government-related Twitter accounts have been spammed in the past in droves, but usually to attack individual accounts or small groups.
Protests have escalated following a deadly fire at an apartment in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang province. Critics have accused the Chinese government's strict COVID-19 lockdown measures of delaying firefighters and otherwise contributing to deaths. Working conditions at a Foxconn factory in Zhengzhou, including concerns about inadequate COVID safety measures, have also led to protests. The street action is rare in its intensity - some protesters called on President Xi Jinping and other Communist Party members to quit. These requests could easily lead to prison sentences in the country.
There are fears that Elon Musk's aggressive job cuts have made the situation worse. TechCrunch pointed out that the contractor had fired Twitter's anti-propaganda team, leaving only the core moderation group. While Twitter reacted quickly to China's attempts to undermine protests in Hong Kong, it took days to start cracking down on spam this time around. The company has resumed hiring, but it's unclear how much support the anti-disinformation unit will get.
The spike also challenges Musk's stance on bots. He tried to back out of the Twitter acquisition claiming the social network was hiding the real number of fake accounts. Spammers and other bogus users can now pose more problems than before, if only because Twitter isn't as well equipped to deal with the threat.
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You won't have much success finding information about the growing protests in China if you search the country's major cities on Twitter. As TechCrunch reports, analysts have noticed an increase in the number of bots peddling pornography and betting around such queries, just as protests have erupted in Beijing and other cities over the past for the past three days in response to China's "zero-COVID" policies. Spam makes it harder to follow rallies, especially for local activists who use Twitter over a VPN to avoid Chinese government censorship of domestic social media protests.
Twitter has effectively disbanded its communications team and hasn't officially commented on the matter. However, The Washington Post notes that a Twitter employee told a researcher that the company was "working to fix" the bot issue. It was easier to find news of the protests on Sunday evening, but spam still cluttered the results. A former staffer told The Post that government-related Twitter accounts have been spammed in the past in droves, but usually to attack individual accounts or small groups.
Protests have escalated following a deadly fire at an apartment in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang province. Critics have accused the Chinese government's strict COVID-19 lockdown measures of delaying firefighters and otherwise contributing to deaths. Working conditions at a Foxconn factory in Zhengzhou, including concerns about inadequate COVID safety measures, have also led to protests. The street action is rare in its intensity - some protesters called on President Xi Jinping and other Communist Party members to quit. These requests could easily lead to prison sentences in the country.
There are fears that Elon Musk's aggressive job cuts have made the situation worse. TechCrunch pointed out that the contractor had fired Twitter's anti-propaganda team, leaving only the core moderation group. While Twitter reacted quickly to China's attempts to undermine protests in Hong Kong, it took days to start cracking down on spam this time around. The company has resumed hiring, but it's unclear how much support the anti-disinformation unit will get.
The spike also challenges Musk's stance on bots. He tried to back out of the Twitter acquisition claiming the social network was hiding the real number of fake accounts. Spammers and other bogus users can now pose more problems than before, if only because Twitter isn't as well equipped to deal with the threat.
All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you purchase something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. All prices correct at time of publication.
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