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Twitter Changes Stoke Russian, Chinese Propaganda Surge

- April 24, 2023
Twitter Changes Stoke Russian, Chinese Propaganda Surge
Twitter has been used by state-affiliated accounts in Russia and China to spread propaganda, according to a report by the Stanford Internet Observatory. The report highlights how these accounts have been able to amplify their messages through the use of hashtags, retweets, and coordinated amplification.

The report examines four major propaganda campaigns conducted by state-affiliated accounts on Twitter. These campaigns include efforts to promote the Russian-backed RT network, to support China’s position on the Uyghur minority in Xinjiang, to spread disinformation about COVID-19, and to attack political opponents.

The report reveals that many of these accounts use tactics such as impersonation and coordinated amplification to evade detection by Twitter’s automated systems. Additionally, some of these accounts have been active for years, indicating that they have been able to avoid detection for an extended period.

Twitter has been criticized in the past for its handling of state-affiliated propaganda on its platform. While the company has taken steps to identify and remove such content, the Stanford report suggests that more needs to be done to address the issue of state-affiliated propaganda on social media.

The report also highlights the threat that state-affiliated actors pose to democratic societies by using social media to spread propaganda. It calls on social media companies to take stronger measures to identify and remove state-affiliated propaganda from their platforms, and for governments to work together to address the issue of foreign interference in democratic processes.

The Stanford report sheds light on the use of social media by state-affiliated actors to spread propaganda and highlights the need for stronger measures to combat this problem. Social media companies and governments must work together to identify and remove state-affiliated propaganda from their platforms and protect democratic societies from foreign interference.