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Chinese bots swamp Twitter with porn to hide news of mass protests

New York Post | Nov. 28, 2022

Chinese bots are swamping Twitter with sexually explicit posts about porn and escorts in an apparent bid to stop the spread of news about the massive protests against lockdowns and President Xi Jinping.

Searches for major Chinese cities that have seen mass protests will “mostly see ads for escorts/porn/gambling, drowning out legitimate search results,” said Air-Moving Device, sharing a series of charts.

“Data analysis in this thread suggests that there has been a significant uptick in these spam tweets,” the outlet said, sharing data retweeted by Stanford Internet Observatory director Alex Stamos.

The “vast majority” — more than 95% — appear to be spam accounts that “tweet at a high, steady rate throughout the day, suggesting automation,” the analysis said.

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