Twitter ran paid ads from China's state news media criticising the Hong Kong protests

[PoliticAverse]

Twitter has been distributing ads from Chinese state media criticising the Hong Kong protests, as spotted by the account of social media bookmarking site Pinboard, run by entrepreneur and developer Maciej Cegłowski.

The posts are from China's Xinhua News Agency, which is state-run. "Two months on, the escalating violence in Hong Kong has taken a heavy toll on the social order," one tweet reads, adding that "all walks of life in Hong Kong called for a brake to be put on the blatant violence and for order to be restored."

A second sponsored tweet portrayed the public sentiment in Hong Kong to be at odds with the protests, saying "Hong Kong citizens call for stopping violence, ending chaos and restoring order in the city," while another pushed a video which described Hong Kong's economy as deteriorating, although it did not explicitly link this to the protests.

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Twitter is banned in China, blocked by the country's "Great Firewall" along with Facebook, Google, and numerous other US tech companies. It's likely that the sponsored tweets are looking to convince a more international audience of the Chinese government's stance on the Hong Kong protests .

Read the rest at: https://www.businessinsider.com/twitter-is-running-paid-ads-china-criticising-the-hong-kong-protests-2019-8

[jberryhill]

1. But of course. Did anyone think Twitter was running them for free?

[abqtommy]

2. Twitter et al is all about the money, Honey!

[Eugene]

3. Twitter removes nearly 1,000 accounts tied to China's campaign against Hong Kong protesters

Source: The Guardian

Twitter removes nearly 1,000 accounts tied to China's campaign against Hong Kong protesters

Company also suspends thousands of accounts as it reports ‘state-backed information operation’

Kari Paul in San Francisco
Mon 19 Aug 2019 20.45 BST First published on Mon 19 Aug 2019 20.02 BST

Twitter has removed nearly 1,000 accounts and suspended thousands of others tied to a campaign by the Chinese government against protesters in Hong Kong, the company announced on Monday.

Twitter disclosed a “significant state-backed information operation” originating from within the People’s Republic of China (PRC) targeting the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong. It removed 936 accounts and suspended approximately 200,000 accounts its investigation found were illegitimate.

“Covert, manipulative behaviors have no place on our service – they violate the fundamental principles on which our company is built,” Twitter said in a statement.

The company released an archive of offending tweets and accounts, many of which accused protesters of violence and being sponsored by western governments. “We don’t want you radical people in Hong Kong,” one deleted tweet said.

In addition, Twitter said it was banning all advertising from state-controlled news media entities. “Any affected accounts will be free to continue to use Twitter to engage in public conversation, just not our advertising products,” it said, adding that the ban would not apply to entities that are taxpayer-funded but independent.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/aug/19/twitter-china-hong-kong-accounts

[PoliticAverse]

4. Thanks for the followup. n/t