SHANGHAI (CHINA) – After the Chinese embassy in US tweeted defending China’s policy towards Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang, Twitter locked the account stating that it violated its stand against “dehumanizing” people.
The Chinese Embassy account, @ChineseEmbinUS, posted a tweet this month that said that Uighur women had been emancipated and were no longer “baby-making machines”, citing a study reported by state-backed newspaper China Daily.
The tweet was removed by Twitter and replaced by a label stating that it was no longer available. Although Twitter hides tweets that violate its policies, it requires account owners to manually delete such posts.
The incident came a day after the Trump administration accused China of committing genocide in Xinjiang, during it’s final hours in the White House. The new Biden administration supports this view.
“We’ve taken action on the Tweet you referenced for violating our policy against dehumanization, where it states: We prohibit the dehumanization of a group of people based on their religion, caste, age, disability, serious disease, national origin, race, or ethnicity,” a Twitter spokesperson said on Thursday.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a regular briefing on Thursday that it was confused by Twitter’s move.
“There are numerous reports and information relating to Xinjiang that are against China. It’s a responsibility for our embassy in the US to clarify the truth,” she said.
“We hope they won’t apply double standards on this issue. We hope they can discern what is correct and truthful from disinformation on this matter.”
China continues to reject accusations of abuse in Xinjiang, where a UN panel has said at least a million Uighurs and other Muslims had been detained in camps.
