China’s Weibo mutes spammers for hijacking trending #Taiwan Strait drill topic
- The social media site says a handful of accounts posted unrelated content under the Eastern Theatre Command hashtag
- The accounts were mostly about celebrity gossip and ads for products ranging from cosmetics to electronics
Weibo removed more than 100 marketing posts under the hashtag “Eastern Theatre Command”, the military region that covers six mainland provinces and the East China Sea, including the Taiwan Strait.
In a statement on Saturday, Weibo’s administrative account said 104 posts had been deleted and five accounts muted for 15 to 30 days for violating community guidelines. Users of those accounts will not be able to post or comment during the period.
“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.
“Homogenisation” refers to a form of marketing similar to spamming, where content is posted repeatedly under unrelated trending topics.
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