Twitter locked the Chinese embassy in the United States out of its account after it defended the country’s treatment of Uyghur Muslim women in reeducation camps, CNN reports.
The embassy cited a report from the state-run newspaper China Daily to claim that Uyghur women were no longer “baby-making machines.”
"In the process of eradicating extremism, the minds of [Uyghur] women in Xinjiang were emancipated and gender equality and reproductive health were promoted," the tweet said.
China has reportedly forced hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs into reeducation and forced labor camps, where some women have reported forced sterilization.
The US has said that China is committing genocide against the minority group.
"This genocide is ongoing, and... we are witnessing the systematic attempt to destroy Uyghurs by the Chinese party-state,” former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said.
Ban over “dehumanization”:
Twitter said it locked the embassy’s account for violating a policy banning "the dehumanization of a group of people based on their religion, caste, age, disability, serious disease, national origin, race, or ethnicity."
The tweet is “no longer available” but the account will remain locked until the embassy deletes it, the social network said. It’s unclear if the embassy will comply.
China plays the “victim”:
"China is ... a major victim,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said. “There are many false and ugly [pieces of] information about China on Xinjiang-related issues. Of course, the Chinese Embassy in the US has responsibilities and obligations to clarify the facts and explain the truth.”
"We hope Twitter can uphold the principle of objectivity and impartiality, not to show double standards on this issue, but to strengthen screening, and identify what is false information, what are rumors and lies, and what is fact and truth."
