Despite Twitter being blocked in China, tweets classified as supportive of Chinese state narratives in relation to Xinjiang accounted for a relatively high proportion of the conversation – nearly 1/3 of all content surveyed. Among these tweets, generic positive content designed to promote Xinjiang as a beautiful and exotic tourist destination emerged as a notable theme. Additionally, accounts sympathetic to the Chinese government incorporated far more cross-platform multimedia content in their posts compared to other users, particularly YouTube videos. The prevalence of seemingly authentic users sharing misleading information about Xinjiang on Twitter suggests a need to rethink traditional frameworks for disinformation mitigation and reorient platform efforts towards promoting more balanced conversations.
