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🇹🇼 Taiwan /Culture & Society

X Platform Criticized for Initial Inaction on Deepfake Abuse Targeting Chinese Dissident

From Liberty Times · () Chinese

Translated from Chinese, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Named sources Context piece
  • Chinese dissident Ni Peiqing, based in the UK, was targeted by a barrage of "deepfake" posts on the X platform, allegedly by pro-Beijing accounts.
  • X initially deemed the abusive content, including fabricated images and videos, as not violating its rules, drawing criticism.
  • The platform eventually suspended the malicious account after the Guardian inquired, with Ni Peiqing also reporting harassment of her parents in China.

Chinese dissident Ni Peiqing, a prominent activist in the United Kingdom, has been subjected to a severe online harassment campaign involving "deepfake" content on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter.

I uploaded a poster for the June 4th event in Sutton, and immediately that account created deepfake images about me. They have been madly tagging my username since the moment they started attacking.

— Ni PeiqingNi Peiqing describing the immediate escalation of the harassment campaign after she posted about an event.

Ni, founder of the China Dissent Network, reported that suspected pro-Beijing bot accounts flooded X with fabricated posts and manipulated media. These posts aimed to defame her, portraying her with a "promiscuous sex life" and as a drug addict. One post even falsely claimed she was beaten during a protest, which Ni believes was a misrepresentation of a past incident where a male activist was attacked.

Her ordeal intensified after she announced her participation in a Tiananmen Square anniversary event. Despite reporting the abuse, X's automated systems initially ruled the content did not violate platform policies against harassment. Even a manual appeal was rejected. The platform's own community guidelines prohibit such targeted, humiliating content.

I reported it to the police, and the police did visit me, but they said because X is an American company and they couldn't verify the real identity of the person behind the account, they were powerless. The police suggested I report it to the platform, and I did, and I even asked many friends and organization members to help report it.

— Ni PeiqingNi Peiqing explaining the limitations faced by law enforcement and her subsequent actions to report the abuse on the platform.

It was only after The Guardian contacted X for comment that the account was suspended. X later stated the action was taken due to "other different reports" received about the content. This sequence of events has raised serious questions about X's content moderation and its commitment to protecting users from targeted abuse, particularly concerning political dissidents. Ni also revealed that her parents in China have faced harassment and threats from secret police due to her activism.

I completely fail to understand why X did not take action immediately to protect me from such serious personal attacks.

— Ni PeiqingNi Peiqing expressing her disbelief at X's initial inaction regarding the deepfake attacks.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by Liberty Times in Chinese. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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