Twitter, Facebook accuse China of Hong Kong discord campaign

It makes sense. China knows that it cannot be outwardly violent toward the protestors (although they'd like to), which would risk hurting their economic situation when foreign countries/potential trading partners decide that they'd rather not be associated with such things. So instead, they choose misdirection. They send their own people in, disguised as protestors, to do horrible things and tarnish the reputation of the protestors. They use the massive human resources they employ to spread propaganda across the internet. This is the modern way of things.

Puzzles me how easily and readily Twitter and Facebook etc are able to identify and take down sites and users whose of views they disapprove but are apparently nowhere near as capable of taking down bullying/exploitative/disgusting ones where they don't have a dog in the fight apart from making money from them.

Hong Kong has brought a lot of money to China, but Xi, as dictator, is not personally affected by that, so he may not take Hong Kong's importance to the Chinese economy to heart. That is the thing about dictators, there is nothing to make them care about the welfare of those they rule, other than the threat of revolt.

 I'd be curious to learn what Japanese security agencies are doing to combat those using social media in attempts to harm Japan, and if the Japanese agencies can tell which users are trolling from outside Japan.

I'd be pretty interested, too.

Facebook said it had acted on a tip off from Twitter

There's no doubt countries like China and Russia do this sort of thing, but I'm actually more disturbed by seeing how easily the tech giants are willing to collude and put their thumb on the scale to shape public opinion. Twitter's language of 'sowing discord' sounds just as cryptic and dystopian as Chinese officials who talk about 'harmony' and banning social media accounts spreading 'harmful rumors'. Also, who gave Twitter the authority to decide whether the political positions of the protest movement are being misrepresented? It's a leaderless movement with no official positions or manifesto.

Twitter and Facebook are banned in China, part of the government's so-called "Great Firewall" of censorship.

Big tech obviously has a huge financial interest in seeing the Chinese government toppled at this point. They've been shut out of the biggest e-commerce and social media market in the world. How soon before the tech giants have as much money and influence as the oil companies had in the lead-up to the Iraq invasion? It's something to think about.

many of the fake accounts were accessed using "virtual private networks" that give a deceptive picture of the user's location, 

Nations are using an array of cyberwarfare tactics to push their agendas while attempting to undermine rival nation's systems and sow discord. I'd be curious to learn what Japanese security agencies are doing to combat those using social media in attempts to harm Japan, and if the Japanese agencies can tell which users are trolling from outside Japan.

“Now can they go after the fake "Trump supporter" accounts “

And the fake “resister” accounts?

Uh,... Twitter & Facebook comments coming from a Chinese Mainland address... would be a good start in identifying those accounts.

China really blocks the internet off, I have domestically there a basic 10 MB connection, which is fine for local Chinese stuff, but as soon as you try to hit non-Chinese sites, you're down to 9600 bps at best.... the "Great China Firewall" is either going to throttle you to a cup of tea, or block you.

One wonders, whether the way forward is to replicate the original FIDO net over IP-Net in order to circumvent these issues as traffic would simply be encrypted MODEM data over IP.... current Firewalls do not filter this.

And the fake “resister” accounts?

The whole world is trying to resist the man, tbf. You just can't trust the big 3 at the moment.

And us proles are stuck in the middle, at the mercy of their whims and propaganda.

Good.

Now let them do the same to the Angry Yam and his Russian allies...

Now can they go after the fake "Trump supporter" accounts that "deliberately and specifically attempt to sow political discord in the US, including undermining the legitimacy and political positions" of anyone who doesn't think the way they do?

Crazy Joe:

You mean the people that don't think the way YOU do.

I still trust tech more than government.

Twitter & facebook will fail.

How many accounts are they going to ban ?

Their business run on those accounts in first place.

USAID is pouring huge sums in HK demonstrations

Boeing, Fisher price and now Twitter and Facebook

The rot in the west is deep.