Twitter reported Thursday (21) that it blocked the account of the Chinese Embassy in the United States after a tweet saying Uyghur women were no longer “baby-making machines” after their minds “emancipated” .
A Twitter spokesperson told AFP news agency he took action against the post for “violating our policy against dehumanization.”
On January 7, the Chinese Embassy report published that Uyghur women “were emancipated” and were no longer “machines for making babies”, citing a study reported by the official China Daily newspaper – the text said that “eradicating extremism has given women in Xinjiang greater autonomy” on the subject of motherhood.
The post was deleted by Twitter after a wave of criticism on the internet. The suspension of the account, however, came a day after the Trump administration, in its dying hours, accused China of committing genocide in Xinjiang – a view shared by the Joe Biden administration.
The tax does not generate any automatic sanctions, but it puts pressure on countries and companies to stop doing business in the region, one of the world’s largest suppliers of cotton.
China is under international criticism for keeping Uyghurs, a largely Muslim minority, in huge detention centers in the Xinjiang region.
In 2018, a UN team received reports that at least 1 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities had been detained. Another study, published in September 2020, reports 380 detention camps.
Beijing denies accusations of abuse and says the sites are spaces for re-education, aimed at combating extremism and teaching new skills.
Uyghurs have been facing a three-year global campaign to make them followers of the Communist Party, weaken their commitment to Islam and move them from farms to factories.
Although Twitter is blocked in China, it has been adopted by state media and diplomats who use the platform to defend Beijing’s positions.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Thursday she was baffled by Twitter’s action.
“There are countless reports and information regarding Xinjiang that are against China. It is the responsibility of our embassy in the United States to clarify the truth, ”he said.