Twitter Removes China Misinformation Campaign: after I published the #KarakaxList, a major state media smear campaign against me ensued, and was amplified by 100s of suspicious accounts, including one that impersonated me. nytimes.com/2020/06/11/tec…
Global Times smear pieces were re-tweeted 100s of times, by accounts with 0-3 followers, often sexually-suggestive (or at least attractive) user profile pics, very similar messages, etc. I am still trying to get over the fact that this bot called me ugly. Just kidding.
Their first strategy was to troll my most tweets - typically of new original research articles, starting w/ my work on parent-child separation in July 2019. When this re-occurred with the China Cables in Nov 2019, I ruthlessly blocked them all. Then, they changed tactics.
Starting in Dec 2019 with research on forced labor but especially in Feb 2020 with the Karakax list, Beijing's strategy shifted to publishing lots of dedicated state media pieces. These were then amplified by bot accounts, often through dedicated RTs or replies.
In recent weeks, Twitter has deleted 100,000s such accounts. I have lost 100s of "follower" accounts, almost all of which had close to zero followers. But some "echo chamber" accounts survived: some have a few followers, others can only boast a half-way correct English sentence.
This account who amplified a such smear piece, with 0 followers, 0 following, and a sexually-suggestive crop of a female as profile image, was not removed. It re-tweeted various Chinese State media smear or propaganda pieces on Xinjiang, but stopped doing so in early March.
It did not chip into the COVID misinformation campaign and has no recent activity, which might be the reason that it was not removed. However, such accounts can lie dormant for a while and be re-activated at any time.
Most accounts that amplified the second smear article against me survive to this day. Some of them have recent tweets, but they only focus on Xinjiang. The Twitter misinformation removal campaign apparently did not focus on removing bot accounts with a focus on Xinjiang.
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Breaking: Xinjiang gets new party secretary as Ma Xingrui is replaced by Chen Xiaojiang, deputy United Front Work Department minister and the first ethnic Han appointed director of the National Ethnic Affairs Commission.
Chen affirms primacy of stability in Xinjiang:👇
Globally, this could foreshadow an emphasis on coordinated influence operations to improve Xinjiang's global image, further repressing dissenting voices abroad. Domestically, it reflects an emphasis on coerced ethnic unity and securitization under total party control.
It confirms that economic development is not the CCP's primary concern in Xinjiang. While Ma was a technocrat experienced in promoting economic development, Chen's experience is in party discipline (CCDI), ideological control and ethnic "unity" (in an assimilatory sense).
Major media investigation finds thousands of Uyghurs forced to work in 75 factories across 11 Chinese regions, with links to major western companies. I supported this joint investigation into state-imposed forced labor transfers by @nytimes @derspiegel @TBIJ. THREAD: 👇
The investigation reviewed thousands of social media videos and visited two dozen factories. The findings point to the massive scale of Uyghurs being sent to work in factories around the country.
Implicated western companies include @BMW , @VW , Mercedes-Benz AG, Stellantis, LG Electronics, Tesla, Midea Group, KFC, McDonald's, @SKECHERSUSA , and Manchester City football club.
The past two months I analyzed Clive Greenwood, the most senior member of the Liangma audit team that visited @VW's Xinjiang factory.
@clivegreenwood’s enigmatic background is characterized by twists, turns, contradictions, and obfuscation. 🧵
Mr. Greenwood did not respond to detailed questions about his professional background, his role in the audit, and his apparent lack of expertise in conducting social audits.
After he was contacted, he deleted his LinkedIn biography and removed "Liangma" from his profile.
Between 2004 and 2016, @clivegreenwood ran a British sports pub in Suzhou called The Drunken Chef, where he advertised his offerings with images of scantily-clad women.
A leaked full copy of the confidential audit of Volkswagen's Xinjiang factory shows that key statements made by @VW about the audit were false or misleading.
The audit suffers from severe methodological shortcomings & failed to protect interviewed Uyghur staff. Full report:🧵
I contacted @VW and they said they did not want to respond to my set of detailed questions about the report. Liangma did not respond.
The audit was conducted by Liangma Law, a Chinese law firm with significant ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
Liangma possesses no discernible experience in conducting social audits and does not advertise related services. It is not accredited to conduct SA8000 audits.
On Saturday, China's Ministry of Civil Affairs casually announced new standardized Chinese names for 30 locations in "South Tibet" (藏南), together with an updated map (below).
"South Tibet" is India's state of Arunachal Pradesh.
Thread:🧵
India promptly responded, affirming that the state is an "integral" part of India.
This was the PRC MCA's 4th announcement, resulting in a total of 62 Chinese place names. Links in next post.
@SophieDRich Related op-ed by @benedictrogers, arguing that member states must be clear and specific in pointing out Beijing's egregious human rights violations. He suggests 10 points that could be raised. ucanews.com/news/chinas-ri…