Twitter and Facebook accuse China of using fake accounts to discredit Hong Kong protesters.

Protesters in Hong Kong. The Hill/Getty. 

Twitter and Facebook have accused China of using fake accounts to discredit Hong Kong protesters. The Hill. Twitter identified 936 accounts from China that were "trying to spread discord" in Hong Kong. Twitter believed these accounts were state backed and in response they have banned state backed media from any country from buying advertising. 200,000 more accounts were suspended before they became active. For it's part Facebook removed seven pages, three groups, and five accounts. 

My Comment:

I don't know what to think about this. On the one hand, I support the Hong Kong protesters and their opposition to communist China. They deserve to have their voices heard and do not deserve to be slandered. 

On the other, I'm extremely wary of the big tech companies deciding who and what should be allowed to have free speech. The accounts that were banned may have been fake but I don't think China's ideas and thoughts should be banned. I'm afraid that anyone who disagrees with the Hong Kong protesters are going to be called bots or inauthentic and banned from the internet. 

I also wonder if the people backing the Hong Kong protests aren't doing the same thing. You can't tell me that state backed accounts aren't pushing a pro-protester narrative. I am sure there are fake accounts and bots posting and retweeting things just like there are for pro-China subjects. But we aren't hearing anything about inauthentic pro-protest accounts being banned. 

I also disagree with Twitter banning state backed media groups from advertising. This would ban groups like RT, Sputnik and the various Chinese media groups from buying advertisement. This seems massively unfair as I can see no reason why the governments of the world shouldn't be able to have their opinions out there as well. It might also ban US outlets like Voice of America as well. 

However, I do think that accounts that are lying about what they are should be banned. I don't think there is anything wrong with a news outlet with state funding saying what they want to say on any issue at all. But I do have a problem with an intelligence agency using fake accounts to push ideas, even ones I agree with. 

I do wonder how much of an impact the internet is having on the Hong Kong protests. Though most social media is banned in China, people get around it with VPN's fairly easily. It's fairly clear that there is an information war coming from both sides. Hilariously enough the immortal Pepe the Frog meme is becoming a symbol of the Hong Kong movement.

As for the protests, it seems clear that China is trying to wait them out. That's what France did with the Yellow Vests campaign and I think China is going to try and emulate them.  I don't know how well that is going to work for them as it seems all of Hong Kong is protesting against China. Eventually China will probably be forced to act.