It is not news that social networks are aware of racial comments, fake news, discriminatory, or that they apologize for violence, perhaps, these actions intensified more with the recent controversies of Donald Trump and culminated with the closure of his Twitter and Facebook account.
Indeed, the interests of companies should not be ignored, whether it is politically correct, it is never a good bet to be on the intolerant side, or to act with disinterest. It is not lucrative not to lead by example especially in an era where voice on social media is critical.
This time, the social media giant Twitter suspended the account of the Chinese embassy in Washington after a tweet defending China’s policy towards Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang province, the company announced on Thursday.
Related Notes: It’s not just Facebook: Twitter may soon get rid of one of its apps too
On January 7, the Chinese embassy account @ChineseEmbinUS tweeted: “In the process of eradicating extremism, the minds of Uyghur women were emancipated and gender equality and reproductive health promoted, making them stop being machines to make babies “.
Twitter removed the post and replaced it with a tag indicating that it was no longer available. “We have taken action on the tweet for violating our policy against dehumanization. We prohibit the dehumanization of a group of people because of their religion, caste, age, disability, serious illness, national origin, race, or ethnicity, “said a Twitter spokesperson on Thursday.
According to a United Nations (UN) study, in at least 70 countries, discriminatory activities prevail, many times by bots, and although this was not the case, bots were used in 50 for social media manipulation campaigns in 2019.
That same study affirms that there are groups that rely on emerging digital technologies as a strategy to promote discord and racial, ethnic and religious intolerance, bots are fundamental to their capacity. spread racist speech or disinformation, this time it is no longer about a president, with a single voice, or a bot, now it was the turn of an account that is the spokesperson for an entire country recognized for being “the Asian giant.”
In response to Twitter’s decision to remove the post, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Beijing hoped the matter would be clarified.
“There are numerous reports and information related to Xinjiang that are against China. It is the responsibility of our embassy in the United States to clarify the truth. We hope that (the United States) do not apply double standards on this issue. We hope they can discern what is correct and truthful from the misinformation in this matter, ”the diplomat added.
Twitter account holders must manually remove posts that are deemed to have violated the policies of the social media platform or risk receiving sanctions from the company. The Chinese embassy account has not posted any new tweets since January 9.
Twitter blocked the account of the Chinese embassy a day after Mike Pompeo, the former US Secretary of State, under alleged orders from former President Donald Trump, accused China of committing genocide and crimes against humanity, this hours before the take possession of Biden.
Although social networks such as Twitter serve to give a voice to those who do not have it, and it is a reporting channel in many cases, also at the other extreme is intolerance and the promotion of despicable acts. And, although it seems an ethically correct action on the part of Twitter, in reality it is not a tendency to support intolerance.