Twitter is under attack and for a good reason. A recent tweet made by a top CCP official contains a fake image dehumanizing Australian troops, yet Twitter continues to turn a blind eye to it.
In the picture, one can see an Australian army man threatening a child with a knife. Zhao Lijian from the Chinese Foreign Ministry posted the picture, expressing his sympathy with Afghani people and asking Australian soldiers to be accountable for their actions.
Apart from being fake, the picture shows sensitive content that might trigger any viewers.
The Australian public is greatly disturbed and Scott Morrison is demanding Twitter to remove the tweet immediately. In a recent virtual meeting, he referred to Lijian’s official Twitter account as being a vile and horrid slur.
Despite the engagement, Twitter’s lack of action has made it clear that it has chosen to side with China. Twitter has claimed that such condemnation tweets made to strengthen foreign policy do not violate their policies and hence cannot be removed.
Twitter gained further backlash after it allowed the tweet to remain on the account, simply marking it as “sensitive”.
Although Twitter remains banned in China, Beijing has a history of being called out for violation of human rights guidelines. But this time Australian politicians and the public are enraged as no action was taken immediately.
Politicians from ally countries such as New Zealand have raised their voices to highlight the lack of fact-checking on Twitter. They all displayed their discontentment with the way the Chinese government has handled the gruesome situation – calling it a failing lack of diplomacy.
The foreign ministry of France expresses displeasure by saying that such an act was not expected from the Chinese. However, in response, the Chinese embassy categorizes the public responses as an overreaction.
The China-Australia differences have also escalated with other issues piling up. During this dialogue, Australia foregrounded the wrong use of military power by China.
Australia has decided to link its defense program with Japan to retaliate the military action by Beijing. As China’s power is rapidly spreading over the Indo-Pacific region, it is the right time to fortify control of the area.
As much as the forged tweet has bothered Australians, the Chinese pay no heed to it. Rather, the Chinese embassy remarks that all the enragement from Australia is only intended to conceal their inhumane acts and toxic nationalism.
