US firm says network of bot accounts also hijacking hashtags in large-scale attempt to obscure coverage
An attempt to flood social media platforms with spam in order to drown out coverage of the lockdown protests inwas probably backed by the Chinese government, according to analysis by a US cybersecurity firm.
“We believe it is likely that this was a large-scale operation either sponsored by the Chinese government or outsourced by the state to a surrogate like a well-resourced troll farm,” she added. In some cases, the posts consist of random strings of English words with tracking codes attached, potentially to gauge how much posts are being used.
She said there was evidence that bot networks had hijacked city name hashtags in previous campaigns, including in September and late October.
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