Chinese Bots Flood Twitter With Porn To Hide News Of Mass Anti-Lockdown Protests: Report

Searching for any major Chinese city on Twitter yielded numerous posts containing porn and gambling content as China faced unprecedented demonstrations over its strict zero-Covid policy.

Police form a cordon during a protest against China's strict zero COVID measures

Source : Getty

Chinese bots are inundating Twitter with sexually explicit posts in an apparent bid to stop the spread of news about the massive protests against Covid-19 lockdowns in the country, reports said.

When users use Chinese script to search for a large city in the country, such as Shanghai or Beijing, Chinese bot accounts, which are not operated by humans, are being utilised to overwhelm the social networking service with adverts for sex workers, pornography, and gambling.

Many 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 the Washington Post, this served to limit knowledge on protests against China's zero-Covid policy.

According to Alex Stamos, director of the Stanford Internet Observatory, the Chinese action represented the "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.

Still working on our own analysis, but here is some good initial data that points to this being an intentional attack to throw up informational chaff and reduce external visibility into protests in China (Twitter being blocked for most PRC citizens):https://t.co/kPK7nMeCPu

— Alex Stamos (@alexstamos) November 28, 2022

Mengyu Dong, a journalist specialising in technology and censorship, tweeted on Sunday: "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

The apparent manipulation of Twitter by Chinese government sources, which was first revealed by the Washington Post, comes on the heels of substantial job losses at Twitter, including among members of the trust and safety team. Musk has reportedly fired half of the company's 7,500 employees, and another 1,200 have reportedly left after he ordered the remaining employees to accept being "hardcore" or leave.

In July, a whistleblower 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.

(With Inputs From Agencies)