Democratic lawmakers ask Musk for info on possible Chinese manipulation of Twitter

[Valin]

CNBC

Lora Kolodny, Lauren Feiner

Dec 7 2022

Three Democratic House members are calling on Twitter’s new owner and CEO Elon Musk to provide information about a possible “platform manipulation campaign” on the social media platform that “restricted access to news about the protests in the People’s Republic of China (PRC)” in recent weeks.

In a letter to Musk on Tuesday, Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Jackie Speier, D-Calif., cited a report from The Washington Post that found many Chinese-language accounts began spamming Twitter with links to escort services and other offerings in the wake of protests over China’s restrictive Covid control measures.

“To ensure that the United States is prepared to counter, thwart, and deter foreign influence threats online, it is critical that we understand the extent of the PRC’s potential manipulation of Twitter and identify how recent changes at Twitter are affecting the threat of CCP foreign influence operations on social media,” the lawmakers wrote.

(Snip)