For the uninitiated, thousands of people across several major cities in China took to the streets in late November to protest against the extended COVID-19 lockdowns in the country. The protests began after a deadly fire took several lives in Xinjiang province’s capital city Urumqi. Protesters blamed the lockdown restrictions for having delayed the arrival of firefighters, effectively contributing to the deaths. They called for the restrictions to end. As protest groups grew in size, the Chinese Communist Party-led Chinese government violently pushed back. Protestors took to online platforms to spread the news, but those were censored in the country by the CCP. As such, foreign platforms like Twitter were ideal for them. But information on Twitter was also obscured by spam tweets. Researchers believe the spam campaigns were coordinated. They used bots to continuously push out fake tweets to suppress news about the Chinese protest, the lawmakers suggest. Representatives Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois-08, Adam Schiff of California-28, and Jackie Speier of California-14 say they have “deep concern” about this “platform manipulation campaign” on Twitter. They have written to Musk asking for more information. They want to know whether this coordinated spam campaign had government backing. The lawmakers also want to know if Twitter has any evidence of state-led manipulative campaigns that deliberately suppress access to information on the platform.
Lawmakers demand an explanation from Musk over the spam campaign that obscured Chinese protest tweets
The letter from the three Democratic lawmakers addressed to Musk further asks if Twitter can identify large-scale misinformation and information suppression. They are questioning if the company’s reduced staff can maintain the same level of action in this regard. Musk fired more than half of Twitter’s employees last month, while hundreds resigned. The company is already leaning towards automation to enforce safety policies. The lawmakers also question Musk’s free speech policy for the social network. “Given Twitter’s emphasis on free speech, what measures are in place or underway to block efforts to prevent access to information through the network?” the letter asks. The Twitter CEO has until December 31 to respond. However, he has shown little regard for these kinds of letters from lawmakers in recent weeks. We will have to wait and see if he formally answers the three Democratic lawmakers.
