China is reportedly spamming Twitter with posts about porn and escorts in an apparent attempt to block news about the widespread protests across the country against COVID lockdowns.
Users searching for major Chinese cities that have seen mass demonstrations like Beijing and Shanghai will “mostly see ads for escorts/porn/gambling, drowning out legitimate search results,” Air-Moving Devices tweeted, along with a series of charts.
“Still working on our own analysis, but here is some good initial data that points to this being an intentional attack to throw up informational chaff and reduce external visibility into protests in China (Twitter being blocked for most PRC citizens),” Alex Stamos., director of the Stanford Internet Observatory, retweeted.
CHINESE POLICE GET VIOLENT AS COVID-19 LOCKDOWN PROTESTS SWEEP ACROSS THE COUNTRY
Stanford University’s Mengyu Dong also shared images of Chinese escort ads, possibly made in an effort to make it difficult to access information about the mass demonstrations.
“Some of these acts have been dormant for years, only to become active … after protests broke out in China,” she wrote.
She noted that one account joined Twitter in 2015 but that all of its more than 2,000 tweets have come within the past 15 hours. Another joined in March and had only sent four tweets before Nov. 26. By the next day, it had more than 3,000 posts.
In this photo taken on Sunday, policemen pin down and arrest a protester during a protest on a street in Shanghai, China. Authorities eased anti-virus rules in scattered areas but affirmed China’s severe “zero- COVID” strategy Monday after crowds demanded President Xi Jinping resign during protests against controls that confine millions of people to their homes. (AP Photo)
Former U.S. diplomat David Cowhig also questioned the timing of the sexually-explicit accounts.
“Chinese net censors at attacking this Twitter tag by posting great numbers of sexy photos to distract people from Wuhan protests?” he wrote. “Or just to jam the channel?
Fox News has reached out to Twitter.
China has erupted in chaos in recent days over leaders Xi Jinping’s tightening of the nation’s COVID lockdowns.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Protests began over the weekend across China over the country’s “zero-COVID” policy. Ten people burned alive in an apartment in Urumqi, which reportedly was a result of the Beijing’s hardline COVID restrictions.
Chinese citizens have taken to the streets to voice anger and outrage over the measures.
