China cracks down on Weibo accounts going ga ga over military drill in Taiwan Strait

Beijing: Weibo, the biggest microblogging site in China, has reportedly removed several accounts for promoting and advertising the Chinese military drills in Taiwan without the knowledge of authorities. The site removed more than 100 accounts for trending posts under the hashtag “Eastern Theatre Command,” the region which covers six Chinese provinces including the Taiwan Strait. China’s People Liberation Army (PLA) launched a series of military drills in Taiwan over the weekend following the meeting between President Tsai-Ing-wen’s meeting with the US House speaker. Soon after the drills were officially announced, the topic became trending on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter. The administrative account of Weibo said in a statement that they have deleted 104 accounts while five accounts have been muted for the next 15 to 30 days for violating the site’s community guidelines. “During active inspections, the site found that a very small number of users were maliciously marketing and hyping up [their products] under the topic of ‘Eastern Theatre Command’ through “homogenisation” means, undermining the ecological order of the network,” Weibo said. The term “homogenisation” refers to a form of marketing where users are spammed with content that is repeatedly posted under unrelated trending topics. By using the means of homogenisation, many have attempted to deceive users with posts about celebrity gossip and commercial advertisement for products like cosmetics and electronics. “We call on all netizens to be vigilant, increase their mindfulness, and work with the site to maintain order on the network,” warned Weibo. Military drills in Taiwan On Monday, China reached the third and last day of its military drills in Taiwan that were launched in retaliation to President Tsai-Ing-wen’s meeting with the US House speaker. Over the weekend, Taiwan detected over 11 Chinese warships and 70 aircraft around the island. The exercises have sparked condemnation among Taipei and warnings from Washington. “These operations serve as a stern warning against the collusion between separatist forces seeking ‘Taiwan independence’ and external forces and against their provocative activities,” said Shi Yin, a PLA spokesman. Naming the operation “Joint Sword”, the military drills included rehearsing an encirclement of Taiwan, according to the People Liberation Army (PLA). Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.