Twitter deleted more than 170,000 accounts believed to spread untrue messages praising the Chinese government, especially about Covid-19.

Twitter on 11/6 said the company deleted a network of 23,750 active accounts and about 150,000 "amplification" accounts used to enhance the content for the accounts.

Twitter and researchers analyzed the accounts, saying the network was primarily aimed at creating "echo effect" for fake accounts.

Twitter said the deleted network was linked to a Chinese state-backed propaganda campaign that was abducted by Twitter, Facebook and YouTube last year for spreading false information about Hong Kong protests.

The researchers said the new propaganda campaign also focused primarily on the issue of Hong Kong, but also promoted false messages about the Covid-19 pandemic, the Taiwan issue as well as the Chinese billionaire.

Renee DiResta, of the Stanford Network Observation Center, said that the network's Covid-19-related activity was intensified in late January, when the epidemic crossed the Chinese border, and peaked in March.

China's Foreign Ministry has not commented on the information.

The State Department in May said it had found a network of "highly capable" bogus Twitter accounts linked to China to spread false claims about Covid-19.

A Twitter spokesperson said on June 11 that the new network was deleted unrelated to identified US State Department accounts.

Over the past year, a large number of Chinese diplomats and diplomatic missions have set up Twitter or Facebook accounts, often using them to attack Beijing critics around the world under the strategy of "war diplomacy."

Last month, Twitter labeled a warning post in March by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhao Lian-Kien, stating that the US military had brought nCoV to Wuhan.