Twitter Quick To Pounce on Trump, Apparently Doesn't Care About Genocide Propaganda
Twitter’s censorship policies have always appeared to be one-sided.
While the social media giant has always been quick to censor President Donald Trump, often labeling his tweets as “misleading,” Twitter seems much more hesitant to pull the censorship trigger when it comes to propaganda promoted by the Chinese Communist Party.
On Dec. 10, the Chinese government posted multiple tweets attempting to refute the notion that it is currently enacting a cultural genocide of the Uighur population, a Muslim-majority cultural minority in China native to the country’s Xinjiang region.
In Xinjiang, all citizens enjoy the same rights. It is a completely independent choice of each citizen to believe in, or not believe in, any religion. https://t.co/7kACz4uYgm
— Chinese Embassy in US (@ChineseEmbinUS) December 10, 2020
The efforts in counter-terrorism and deradicalization in Xinjiang have never targeted any specific religion or ethnic group, and devout religious believers are never equated with extremists. https://t.co/7kACz4uYgm
— Chinese Embassy in US (@ChineseEmbinUS) December 10, 2020
“In Xinjiang, all citizens enjoy the same rights. It is completely independent choice of each citizen to believe in, or not believe in, any religion,” the official Twitter account of China’s U.S. embassy wrote.
“The efforts in counter-terrorism and deradicalization in Xinjiang have never targeted any specific religion or ethnic group, and devout religious believers are never equated with extremists.”
The tweets both linked to a transcript of a news conference from the only official news website of Xinjiang denying that the Uigurs are “a persecuted people,” and claiming such a statement has “no support of facts or evidence.”
In spite of these claims, overwhelming evidence from multiple reports across the political spectrum confirms that the genocide is currently ongoing.
Uighurs sitting, bound and blindfolded, waiting to be loaded onto train cars and taken — somewhere.
Drone footage from an unknown hero in China.#Uighur pic.twitter.com/l9CTfyM2iT
— PariahDog?⚖️ (@Pdog119) July 15, 2020
Uighurs are reportedly being forced into re-education camps, prisons and labor factories.
Even the U.S. State Department confirmed the truth in July when spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said “this is one of the most disturbing stories in the world.”
The story of what has happened to the Uyghur people over the past few years is one of the most disturbing in the world— this is potentially one of the worst crimes that we have seen since the Holocaust. pic.twitter.com/nD3sEOzrbN
— Morgan Ortagus (@statedeptspox) July 6, 2020
“I think when you look at what has happened to the [Uighur] people, this is potentially the worst crime that we have seen since the Holocaust,” Ortagus said.
Nevertheless, Twitter allowed the Chinese government to post multiple tweets denying the existence of the Uighur genocide.
Many of Trump’s tweets have been flagged for violating the platform’s “Civic integrity policy” which states that users may not share “false or misleading content” in relation to “political elections,” “censuses” and “major referenda and ballot initiatives.”
While many of Trump’s comments on election fraud are thus far unsubstantiated, Trump’s comments cannot be accurately described as “false or misleading,” given that numerous affidavits testifying to various types of election fraud have been filed in courts in several swing states.
Whether or not those accusations turn out to be true, these affidavits constitute evidence of fraud. Therefore, Trump’s comments are not baseless, false or misleading. They are his opinion of the facts.
Although the tweets from China’s embassy are not related to civic processes, they definitely qualify as “false” and “misleading.” If Twitter sincerely hopes to limit “misleading information” on its platform, narrowing the scope of censorship to the arena of civic processes is an odd choice.
After all, what’s more important: elections, or the genocide of an ethnic minority?
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
