Twitter, Facebook Refuse to Remove Army of Chinese Propaganda Bots, Oxford Researchers Reveal.

Platforms including Twitter and Facebook are failing to suspend and label thousands of bot accounts linked to the Chinese Communist Party, according to a new investigation conducted by the Associated Press and the Oxford Internet Institute.

May 11, 2021 Natalie Winters

“A seven-month investigation by the Associated Press and the Oxford Internet Institute, a department at Oxford University, found that China’s rise on Twitter has been powered by an army of fake accounts that have retweeted Chinese diplomats and state media tens of thousands of times, covertly amplifying propaganda that can reach hundreds of millions of people — often without disclosing the fact that the content is government-sponsored,” the outlet summarizes.

The new report highlights how Twitter – a platform that’s quick to censor American conservatives – is slow to tackle Chinese Communist Party propaganda and manipulation of algorithms. “Twitter’s takedowns often came only after weeks or months of activity. All told, AP and the Oxford Internet Institute identified 26,879 accounts that managed to retweet Chinese diplomats or state media nearly 200,000 times before getting suspended. They accounted for a significant share – sometimes more than half — of the total retweets many diplomatic accounts got on Twitter,” the report noted.........To Read More.....