An executive at X, formerly Twitter, is accusing the Chinese government of spamming porn to sabotage Chinese-language searches on the platform and suppress results about political unrest.
Nikita Bier, the product head for X, made the accusation after a user complained that Chinese-language searches on the platform are broken. “It’s filled with spam and illicit ads, making it impossible to find useful info,” the user wrote.
Bier tweeted back: “The Chinese government floods X search results with porn whenever there is political unrest—to prevent their citizens from finding out real-time information. This has been a difficult problem to solve, but we are aware and working on it.”
Interestingly, Bier also said the spam has been traced to a “pool of 5 to 10 million accounts” that were apparently created before X began cracking down on new account sign-ups.
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He didn’t provide any other details, including how the platform might solve the issue. But in late 2022, researchers and journalists noticed suspected bot accounts spamming Chinese-language adult content and gambling ads on Twitter, suppressing searches for political protests against China’s COVID-19 lockdown policies.
There was no direct evidence linking the Chinese government to the spam. But Bier’s tweet suggests the spam operation is vast and has Beijing’s blessing.
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X/Twitter has long been banned in China. However, users from within the country can gain access through VPNs, offering them a way to see uncensored news about China and political unrest. However, researchers have long suspected that the Chinese government used fake accounts and bots to spread propaganda on foreign social media platforms.
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After buying Twitter in October 2022, billionaire Elon Musk tried to eliminate the bot problem by asking users to pay for a monthly subscription for a verified blue checkmark. But users have complained that fake accounts remain a problem on the platform, pointing to the clickbait content that pops up on their feeds or spam from direct messages.
We also noticed if you search for Beijing “北京” in Chinese on X, you can face a flood of spam from Chinese accounts posting QR codes that link to Chinese sites.
(Credit: X.com)
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I’ve been a journalist for over 15 years. I got my start as a schools and cities reporter in Kansas City and joined PCMag in 2017, where I cover satellite internet services, cybersecurity, PC hardware, and more. I’m currently based in San Francisco, but previously spent over five years in China, covering the country’s technology sector.
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