In late November, as anti-COVID lockdown protests broke out across cities in China and photos and videos were shared over social media, researchers noticed something odd on Twitter. When they searched for the names of large cities in China, the results included scads of suggestive images and posts advertising escort services. Some observers accused the Chinese government of attempting to drown out reporting on the protests.
Using irrelevant spam content from automated accounts (known as bots) to drown out material targeted for suppression – or “flooding” – is a known tactic that the Chinese government has used during protests in Hong Kong and COVID lockdowns, say researchers at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab. One of the hallmarks of such information operations is the activation of long-dormant accounts, which has been observed during this round of protests.
Researchers at the DFR Lab have suggested that tweeting over 72 times a day is bot-like behavior. NPR identified over 3,500 accounts that have done so and mentioned China’s three largest cities at least once a day from Nov 21, 2022 to Nov. 30. The data shows an uptick in the number of these accounts, peaking on Nov. 28.
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