Report: Chinese Communists Target Anonymous Critics on Facebook, Twitter

The Chinese Communist Party is increasingly using advanced technological tactics to track down China critics on Twitter and Facebook, even when dissidents make use of anonymous accounts, according to a new report in the New York Times. 

The report also revealed that Twitter suspended an account used by a Chinese student living abroad that parodied Chinese dictator Xi Jinping, after an effort by Chinese officials to unmask it. Twitter later restored the account without explanation.

Via the New York Times:

The Chinese student in Australia, who provided the video recording from her police questioning, recalled the terror she had felt when she first received a call from her father in China in spring 2020. The police told him to go to a local station over a parody account she had created to mock China’s leader, Xi Jinping. She declined to be named over concerns about reprisals.

Fearful, she denied owning the Twitter account but filmed the call and kept the account up. A few months later, Twitter suspended it.

According to the report, Chinese authorities are using foreign contractors to help them track down anonymous dissidents.

Such work often begins with a single tweet or Facebook post that has attracted official attention, according to the contractor, who declined to be named because he was not approved to speak publicly about the work. A specialist in tracking people living in the United States, he said he used voter registries, driver’s license records and hacked databases on the dark web to pinpoint the people behind the posts. Personal photos posted online can be used to infer addresses and friends.

Speaking out against the regime in China can come with harsh penalties. A business leader was recently imprisoned for 18 months for openly criticizing the CCP. 19 of his family members and employees also received prison sentences ranging from 1 to 12 years.

Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. He is the author of #DELETED: Big Tech’s Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal The Election.