The fake Twitter page of Tom Hugo
Photo: nytimes.com
The New York Times (NYT) published an article “Its Another Perfect Day in Tibet!” on July 21, exposing a series of fake Twitter accounts that have been used to spread Chinese propaganda. The investigation was carried out by Free Tibet and later reported in the British Guardian, and the American NBC News and Los Angeles Times.
The NYT article focuses on the account of “Tom Hugo” which has been used to share photographs of Tibetans in “unique exotic dress,” articles that celebrate Chinese rule of Tibet, and video clips showing happy Tibetans singing and dancing on state-run television. “Tom Hugo”, however, is not real.
The photo accompanying the Twitter profile actually pictures a Brazilian model named Felipe Berto and, according to the NYT, nearly every video, article and photograph tweeted comes via propaganda websites linked to the Chinese government. From the photograph shown on the NYT website of his Twitter profile, “Tom Hugo” had 2,637 followers.
Free Tibet, a London-based advocacy group, has identified nearly 100 similar fake accounts in recent days which are being used to spread pro-Chinese news and stories about Tibet and Xinjiang. Alistair Currie, the media manager for Free Tibet has said, “when it comes to Tibet, nothing that China does surprises us, but this appears to be something new”. He continued, “we think the scope of this is beyond the capacity of our organisation to investigate.”
The NYT article concedes that there is “no direct evidence to link the Chinese government to the phoney accounts” but argues that “the content and breadth of the effort would suggest the involvement of a state actor.” It links these incidents with the actions of the so-called Fifty Cent Party, a group of people employed by the Chinese government to make pro-Communist posts on Internet message boards and chat rooms.
The NYT calls these efforts to sway opinion through social media “ham-handed” as other fake Twitter accounts identified by Free Tibet use photographs of actors, eg, Erica Durance from the American television series “Smallville”, and even Syd Barrett, the lead vocalist of Pink Floyd, who died in 2006.
The NYT reported on July 22 that Twitter suspended many of these fake accounts “just hours” after their first article, including that of “Tom Hugo”.
To read the full NYT article click here: http://nyti.ms/1olg10x
UPDATE: Free Tibet has reported:
“Free Tibet stops China’s latest bid to manipulate Western opinion
“Social media platform Twitter has now suspended all the fake accounts China has been using to spread propaganda about Tibet.
“In a conversation with senior Twitter executives last night, Free Tibet thanked the company for taking decisive action. The suspension of the accounts followed our investigation exposing the use of fake identities to tweet content supporting China’s spin on Tibet.”
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