Chinese official's 'repugnant' tweet of Australia soldier likely amplified by fake accounts, experts sayA Chinese official’s tweet of an image of an Australian soldier that sparked a furious reaction from Canberra was amplified across social media by unusual accounts, of which half were likely fake, Australian experts and an Israeli cybersecurity firm say. Accounts originating in China were the most active, he said, and 8% of replies were from accounts created on the day, or in the 24 hours beforehand. “If there’s enough of them, those irregularities suggest they were set up for a particular campaign.”Some of the accounts had already been identified by Graham in a data-set of 37,000 Chinese accounts targeting Australia since June, he said. Ariel Bogle, a researcher at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said she had also noticed “unusual behaviour” by Twitter accounts retweeting or liking Zhao’s tweet. “There was a spike in accounts created on November 30 and December 1,” she said, adding it was too early to determine if it was coordinated inauthentic behaviour or patriotic individuals.

Source: The Guardian December 05, 2020 04:30 UTC