Twitter won’t ban China tweet image

Twitter won’t ban or hide China foreign ministry spokesman Lijian Zhao’s tweet but it has marked its image as sensitive.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian speaks at the daily media briefing in Beijing. Picture: AFP

Twitter won’t ban or hide China foreign ministry spokesman Lijian Zhao’s tweet but it has marked its image as sensitive, the company says.

The tweet depicts an Australian soldier holding a knife to the throat of an Afghan child, an image that references the war crimes investigated by the country’s Brereton report which found evidence of 39 murders of civilians and prisoners committed by or at the behest of Australian special forces in Afghanistan.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has branded the image “repugnant” and the post “shameful” and “appalling”. He has demanded an apology.

The tweet also has stirred up an angry response on Twitter. Lijian Zhao has pinned the tweet to the top of his account, and for his efforts, has received a barrage of angry responses pointing out that Australia itself undertook its own war crimes investigation, and questioned whether China would be capable of the same over issues such as Tiananmen Square, the detention of Uighurs and annexation of Tibet.

“There would never be a Brereton inquiry in China,” one tweet said. “You know about this because of Australia‘s own investigation, made public. Unlike the situation with the CCP and the treatment of Uighur people. Or the actions of Chinese Army against China’s own students in Tiananmen Square 1989. 31 years, no accountability there,” says another.

In the midst of this, the question has been raised whether Twitter should have permitted the image to be published in the first place, or at least whether it should have hidden it, as it did several tweets of US president Donald Trump.

Twitter however won’t be banning the image; nor will it be hidden by default. Twitter instead has told The Australian that the image will be marked as “sensitive media”. Further, Twitter has labelled Lijian Zhao’s account as an “official government account”.

According to Twitter, tweets by world leaders, politicians, and official government accounts, direct interactions with fellow public figures, comments on political issues of the day, and “foreign policy sabre-rattling” on economic or military issues are generally not in violation of the Twitter Rules.

It’s the reason that Iran’s leaders can post tweets denying the existence of the Holocaust. This is regarded as commentary by world leaders.

In the case of Lijian Zhao’s tweet, a Twitter spokesperson told The Australian that “the image contained within the tweet in question has been marked as sensitive media”.

Twitter users who don’t want to view “sensitive media” will receive a warning about it, and a link if they really want to view it.

These sensitive media settings are buried within Twitter settings and it’s likely few Twitter users know of their existence.

To find these settings, go to your profile page on the web, select more, settings and privacy, privacy and safety, and content you see. There is a setting for “display media that contain sensitive content”. Go back a step, select your tweets, and there is a setting “mark media you tweet as having material that may be sensitive”.

“When enabled, pictures and videos you tweet will be marked as sensitive for people who don’t want to see sensitive content,” says Twitter.

(Accessing these settings may vary when using the Twitter mobile app.)

These buried settings represent the limit that Twitter seems prepared to go. As for Lijian Zhao’s account – he enjoys a privileged position in a country where the use of Twitter is blocked for the population at large.