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Twitter blocked the account of the Chinese embassy in the United States for a tweet defending China’s policies in the Xinjiang region, which according to the US social media platform violated the company’s policy against “dehumanization.”
FILE PHOTO: Protest outside Twitter headquarters in San Francisco
SHANGHAI: Twitter blocked the account of the Chinese embassy in the United States for a tweet defending China’s policy towards Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang, which according to the US social media platform violated its stance against “dehumanizing” people.
China’s Foreign Ministry said Thursday that it was confused by the move and that it was the embassy’s responsibility to denounce the misinformation and clarify the truth.
The Chinese embassy account, @ChineseEmbinUS, posted a tweet this month saying that Uighur women had become emancipated and were no longer “baby-making machines,” citing a study published by the state-run China Daily newspaper.
Twitter deleted the tweet and replaced it with a tag indicating that it was no longer available. Although Twitter hides tweets that violate its policies, it requires account owners to manually remove such posts. The Chinese embassy account has not posted any new tweets since January 9.
Twitter’s suspension of the embassy account came a day after the Trump administration, in its final hours, accused China of committing genocide in Xinjiang, a finding backed by the incoming Biden administration.
The Biden administration did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Twitter’s move.
Twitter is blocked in China, but it has been embraced by Chinese state media and diplomats, many of whom have come to the platform to aggressively defend China’s positions in what is known as “wolf warrior” diplomacy.
“We have taken action in relation to the Tweet you referenced for violating our policy against dehumanization, where it says: We prohibit the dehumanization of a group of people based on their religion, caste, age, disability, serious illness, national origin, race, or ethnicity, “a Twitter spokesperson said Thursday.
The Chinese embassy in Washington, which joined Twitter in June 2019, did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said in a regular briefing on Thursday that she was confused by Twitter’s move.
“There are numerous reports and information related to Xinjiang that are against China. It is the responsibility of our embassy in the United States to clarify the truth,” he said.
“We hope they do not apply double standards on this issue. We hope they can discern what is correct and true from the misinformation on this matter.”
China has repeatedly rejected accusations of abuse in Xinjiang, where a UN panel has said that at least one million Uighurs and other Muslims had been detained in camps.
Last year, a report by German researcher Adrian Zenz published by the Washington-based Jamestown Foundation think tank accused China of using forced sterilization, forced abortion and coercive family planning against Muslim minorities. China said the allegations were unfounded and false.
This is not the first time that Twitter has taken action against accounts linked to China. In June last year, it deleted more than 170,000 accounts that it said were linked to a Beijing-backed lobbying operation that deceptively spread messages favorable to the Chinese government.
The Twitter move also follows the removal of former US President Donald Trump’s account, which had 88 million followers, citing the risk of violence after his supporters stormed the US Capitol this month.
Meanwhile, China took an optimistic tone toward the Biden administration on Thursday, saying “kind angels can triumph over the forces of evil.”
(Reporting by Brenda Goh; Additional reporting by Kanishka Singh and Cate Cadell; Edited by Jacqueline Wong, Gerry Doyle and Nick Macfie)
