Twitter Bots Target Tibetan ProtestsTwitter bots -- automated accounts that auto-follow and send junk tweets hawking questionable wares and services -- can be an annoyance to anyone who has even a modest number of followers. But increasingly, Twitter bots are being used as a tool to suppress political dissent, as evidenced by an ongoing flood of meaningless tweets directed at hashtags popular for tracking Tibetan protesters who are taking a stand against Chinese rule.
It's not clear how long ago the bogus tweet campaigns began, but Tibetan sympathizers say they recently noticed that several Twitter hashtags related to the conflict -- including #tibet and #freetibet -- are now so constantly inundated with junk tweets from apparently automated Twitter accounts that the hashtags have ceased to become a useful way to track the conflict.
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Twitter Bots Target Tibetan Protests
