Twitter cull slammed in China, Turkey, Russia

Turkey decried Twitter as a "propaganda machine" on Friday, responding to the company's move to delete "networks" involving some 170,000 accounts allegedly linked with pro-government interests in Turkey, China, and Russia.

Read more:  Twitter removes state-linked accounts used by China, Russia and Turkey

Twitter was trying to "smear the Government of Turkey and a popular political movement." Fahrettin Altun, the head of communications for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said in a Twitter post.

"The company's allegations that those accounts were 'fake' profiles designed to support the President and that they were single-handedly managed by a central authority are untrue," Altun said.

He also appeared to threaten the platform, claiming it was eager to "promote black propaganda by anti-Turkey entities" and "redesign Turkish politics."

"We would like to remind this company of the eventual fate of a number of organizations, which attempted to take similar steps in the past," Altun wrote, in a likely reference to restrictions Ankara had imposed on YouTube, Wikipedia, and Twitter itself.

Read more:  Turkey hit with government social media blackout as IS claims deadly car bombing

China says it is 'victim' of disinformation

In Beijing, the Chinese government called on Twitter to focus on people who were attacking the Asian country. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said China was "the biggest victim of false information." She added she was not aware of the purge.

"If Twitter wants to make a difference, it should shut down those accounts that have been organized and coordinated to attack and discredit China," she said.

Twitter is banned in China, with Chinese-based Weibo fulfilling a similar role in the country.

Read more:  EU says China, Russia behind coronavirus 'disinformation campaigns'

"While the Chinese Communist Party won't allow the Chinese people to use Twitter, our analysis shows it is happy to use it to sow propaganda and disinformation internationally," said Fergus Hanson, director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute's International Cyber Policy Centre, which cooperated with Twitter on the removal.

'United Russia' decries Twitter's 'censorship'

The biggest network of these accounts was linked to China, with 23,750 that were further boosted by 150,000 "amplifier" accounts. The Turkish and Russian networks were much smaller, with 7,340 and 1,152 accounts respectively.

In Moscow, the ruling United Russia party said all of its accounts were operating normally, but the organization still slammed Twitter's move as censorship.

Read more:  Is Russia running a coronavirus disinformation campaign?

"Blocking [accounts] based on political markers is censorship. It is unacceptable," senior United Russia lawmaker Alexander Hinstein told the Interfax news agency.

Twitter also incurred the ire of US President Donald Trump last month, after taking action against a series of his tweets related to the death of George Floyd. Trump responded by initiating legislation seeking to reclassify the company as being responsible for the content third parties post on the platform. 

dj/msh (dpa, AFP, Reuters, AP)

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