Twitter trolls target anti-China UQ activist Drew Pavlou

The financial information of Drew Pavlou’s family has been shared on social media in what the Brisbane activist says is retaliation for his involvement in a documentary on China.

Pro-China Twitter bots have been mass trolling Queensland student activist Drew Pavlou, with anonymous accounts sharing the financial and legal information of his close family members.

The University of Queensland student described the attack as “scary”, and believes the swarm of hundreds of bots on his social media account was prompted by his involvement in an upcoming BBC documentary critical of China’s influence.

Sharing excerpts from a court case surrounding Mr Pavlou’s parents and grandfather being defrauded out of hundreds of thousands of dollars in a mass Ponzi scheme, the trolls also accuse him of being a “paedophile”, a “Nazi” and of pocketing American bribes.

Drew Pavlou at a protest at the University of Queensland. Picture: Liam Kidston.

Mr Pavlou said he was not even aware of the extent to which his parents were defrauded, and was horrified to see their personal details being shared online.

He said the events occurred in 2011 – when he was only 12 years old – while the court case dated to 2016.

“To have anonymous people trawling through my family’s finances has really blindsided me,” he said.

“They have been twisting the details and making it sound like I had defrauded other people, trying to dig up absolutely any dirt they can find on me.

“To me it appears to be a co-ordinated attack – a way to say ‘look how much information we can find on your family’. That’s really scary, and really unsettling.”

Mr Pavlou uses his Twitter account to regularly share anti-China posts to his almost 25,000 followers, including accusing the country of mass human rights issues and the genocide of Uyghurs.

The former UQ Senate member made headlines around the world for leading pro-Hong Kong democracy protests at UQ in mid-2019.

One descended into violence when China supporters clashed with protesters, with Mr Pavlou assaulted and a security guard bitten.

In the following months Mr Pavlou claims his email account was breached several times, with threatening letters sent to his family home.

He said he had no intention of tempering his views