Twitter has taken down close to 175,000 accounts it said were linked to a Chinese government campaign to spread "deceptive narratives."
CNBC reported that the social media network removed 23,750 accounts that it said were spreading "geopolitical narratives favorable to the Communist Party of China (CCP)." An additional 150,000 accounts were also removed after they were flagged for boosting the content posted by the other batch of accounts.
The material largely focused on Hong Kong but touched on the coronavirus pandemic and the racial protests taking place in the United States as well.
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute analyzed the accounts that were removed and wrote a report on its findings.
"We have identified that this operation continues and has pivoted to try to weaponize the U.S. government's response to current domestic protests and create the perception of a moral equivalence with the suppression of protests in Hong Kong," the report reads, according to CNBC.
Officially called the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, Hong Kong has a separate government from China but is technically part of its communist neighbor. Protests have flared in recent months as Hong Kong residents strive for full independence.
Other tweets posted by the thousands of accounts that were taken down focused on the COVID-19 pandemic, which started in Wuhan, China, late last year.
"The tweets in this set focused on cheering on the Chinese government epidemic response, calling for Chinese and global unity, painting China as a responsible stakeholder in the international environment," concluded the Stanford Internet Observatory, according to CNBC.
Twitter said the accounts in question "were largely caught early and failed to achieve considerable traction on the service, typically holding low follower [counts] and low engagement."
Twitter also removed thousands of accounts with ties to Turkey and Russia, according to the report.
Twitter appears to have stepped up its enforcement actions when it comes to policing the content on its platform. It recently flagged multiple tweets on President Donald Trump's account for misinformation and for "glorifying violence."
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