Twitter recently underwent a major change in leadership as Jack Dorsey stepped down from his CEO post and appointed Parag Agrawal for the post. But the micro-blogging platform has shared an important update on the crackdown of state-linked information operations it has managed to remove from its platform in a bid to bring non-manipulated, bias-free news to users.
Twitter on Thursday announced that it has removed 3,465 accounts for its foreign state-linked information operations. The Twitter accounts that were removed were linked to operations attributed to six countries, but the biggest contributor remained China.
Today, we're disclosing an additional 3,465 accounts to our archive of state-linked information operations — the only one of its kind in the industry. The account sets include eight distinct operations we've attributed to six countries – Mexico, the People's Republic of China (PRC), Russia, Tanzania, Uganda, and Venezuela, respectively. Every account and piece of content associated with these operations has been permanently removed from the service," Twitter said in its official blog.
Twitter busts China's propaganda
As per the report, Twitter identified and removed a network of accounts that were mainly used to amplify the Chinese Communist Party's narratives related to the treatment of the Uyghur population in Xinjiang.
More often than not, China's crackdown on the Uyghur population has been exposed and widely criticised on a global platform. Recently, new documents called 'Xinjiang Papers' have surfaced, showing Chinese President Xi Jinpings links with the crackdown on Uyghur Muslims. Also, global legislators had demanded tough stand on China from G20 countries so as to expose China's human rights abuses before the international community.
Twitter said it removed 2,048 accounts violating its policy on platform manipulation and spam policies. Additionally, Twitter also removed a network of 112 accounts connected to "Changyu Culture," a private company backed by the Xinjiang regional government.
