Nearly 2,000 Twitter accounts reportedly linked to China deleted ahead of US midterms

Twitter has deleted around 2,000 accounts that were supposedly a part of three China-based operations seeking to influence the US midterm elections, Washington Post reported. They were playing up polarising topics, as per data on several foreign influence operations released by Twitter. The tweets these accounts posted were picking up on extreme American ideologies and amplifying them.

Some of these accounts were active until as recently as last month and a few of them are supposedly based in the US. Twitter has not attributed these accounts and their activity to any specific countries.

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“The disclosure by Twitter adds to what is known about China-based efforts to influence American audiences by mimicking the strategies Russia-based operatives used to stoke cultural and political tensions during the 2016 election,” the researchers who analyzed the data wrote.

With the US midterms just a week away, reports suggest that Chinese and pro-China operations have been trying to create commotion in the country's political scene. A poll done by the Cybersecurity 202’s Network group of experts says that cybersecurity experts are much more concerned about China influencing the 2022 midterms than they were in 2020.

The FBI and Meta have also reported similar cases in the run up to the elections. The federal investigative agency warned that what seemed like Chinese government-affiliated hackers have scanned their systems, something usually done before the actual hacking happens.

In September, Meta announced that it took down a China-based operation targetted at US politics ahead of the midterms.

However, the traction and engagement that the Twitter accounts received by much more. “Ultra MAGA BELLA Hot Babe” and “Salome Cliff”, two of the many suspected accounts, had thousands of followers.

The accounts were removed for violating the rules of the platform, manipulation and spam, the company said.

Pro-Chinese accounts aren't the only ones trying to play a role in the US politics.

An Iran-based network amassed nearly 25,000 followers and millions of likes which dealt with “interspersed liberal, anti-Trump messaging with harsh anti-Israel slogans,” the Washington Post wrote.

One of the accounts posed as an advocacy group and even endorsed candidates standing in the local races. It was a moderator on a Reddit discussion board which has over 100,000 subscribers.

The development comes at a time when the world's richest man Elon Musk took hold of the reins of the platform. It went through a stormy period before the deal was finalised and things at the company are expected to undergo even more changes.

The social media platform has its first job cut out, to police misinformation ahead of next week’s midterms.

(With inputs from agencies)