A Twitter account spreads fabricated news about Taiwanese government’s “wrongdoing”

The Taiwan FactCheck Center since early February has come across a series of fake news from a certain Twitter account accusing the Taiwanese government of bombing the indigenous communities, using police force to repress the indigenous people, and tearing down their houses. The posts used real news as the source but forged the captions.

Riots in Solomon Islands as Bomb Attacks by Taiwanese Government

The first message circulating on the social media platform and messaging apps that caught the TFC’s eyes was one with a video of 13 seconds showing a building on fire, saying that the building belonged to the indigenous people in Taitung, Taiwan and caught on fire after “the government threw firebombs on it with drones.” 

The message claimed that at least 400 Taiwanese indigenous people were killed and called on the Taiwanese government not to use violence to repress the people.

Circulating on the social media platform and messaging apps since February 6, the message claimed that at least 400 Taiwanese indigenous people were killed and called on the Taiwanese government not to use violence to repress the people. (Screenshot)

The TFC quickly fact-checked the message and found that the video came from the news reports about the riots in Honiara, the capital of the Solomon Islands in November 2021. The reverse image search showed that the video was from the incident as reported then by international media outlets such as CNN, Independent, and news.com.au. 

The reports clearly reported that the violent demonstrations were sparked by the country’s controversial decision to switch diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to China. The source of the video, as credited by the reports, was attributed to ZFM Radio, a local radio station located in the Solomon Islands.

Earthquakes in Turkey and Syria and Protests in Iran Deliberately Misplaced

The same Twitter account again tweeted on February 7, 9 and 10, continuing to spread fake news about Taiwan, such as Taiwanese government knocking down indigenous people’s houses in Yilan, Taiwanese police repressing the indigenous people and chasing after them on the street, and Taitung residents causing a fire by setting off firecrackers and harming people.

The fabricated post about houses being torn down in Yilan was, after the TFC’s fact-check, found to have used the photos from the Xinhua News reports about the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria in February 2023.

The post accusing the Taiwanese police of chasing the indigenous people and criticizing “the Taiwan region” for violating human rights was debunked by the TFC as well. The video accompanying the post showed the street lined with shop boards and signs in Arabic, and was found by the TFC to be from the news about the street protests in Iran last September.

Left: Twitter video purported to show the Taiwanese government knocking down indigenous people’s houses in Yilan. Right: Footage about the street protests in Iran in September 2022.  (Taiwan FactCheck Center)

The account also aimed to discredit Taiwanese people, with a post published on February 10 stating there were people in Taitung “deliberately setting off firecrackers to harm people and many onlookers chose not to help, which shows Taiwanese people have no virtues.” The fire indeed happened in Taitung, the TFC confirmed, but it was a report about an accident during the Lantern Festival pilgrimage.  

A Twitter video claimed to show Taitung residents causing a fire by setting off firecrackers and harming people. However, the video was taken from a news chip and misinterpreted the real event as a deliberate crime. (Screenshot)

Beware of Fake Twitter News Account

The Twitter account, so-called CBBNEWS, was newly registered in January 2023, followed by 367 people. Self-claimed as self-media broadcasting news about Taiwan and the world, the account has no links to websites or contact information. There is no byline and no source in the “reports” posted by the account.

This account has no blue checkmark. However, it should be noted that while the blue checkmark used to be the identifier for an account verified by Twitter, according to Twitter’s current policy, now it could also simply mean that the account “has an active subscription to Twitter’s new Twitter Blue subscription product and meets certain requirements.” 

This means that while an account having no blue checkmark is certainly more doubtful, having a blue checkmark now should no longer be easily taken as credible. Prudence is required. 

Using Account Analysis, a tool for evaluating Twitter accounts, the TFC also found the hashtags frequently used by the account in question, such as “disaster,” “death to violent government,” “there are no violent rioters, only violent governments,” were from another user, @cnnnd022, which was also the account with tweets retweeted by CBBNEWS the most.

 
Analysis result of the Twitter account CBBNEWS. ( Account Analysis)

The account @cnnnd022 had a link to a website called Cnmd News, which self-introduced as a “movement of exposing Chinese traitors.” A look at the website showed that no contact information was revealed and that most of the articles were diatribes against Chinese dissidents in exile.

While the Botometer, a bot-detecting tool developed by Twitter, did not confirm that the account “CBBNEWS” was a bot (scoring four out of five, where a five means most bot-like), it did observe some bot-like activities. Together with the fact that the account has spread unfounded lies, the TFC concludes that “CBBNEWS” (@CBBWorld1) is not a credible institution.