In March, a Twitter account popped up that pretty much nobody had heard of before. By this morning, it had accumulated a total of 54 followers. The person associated with the account is not a celebrity, politicians, influencer, or someone who is often impersonated on the platform. But the account was “verified” by Twitter and is being used to spread radical leftist and pro-CCP propaganda.
Now, many on Twitter are asking, “Who is ‘Dr. Jialun'”?
• New account created in March 2021
• Has less than 200 followers
• already verified by Twitter
• uses platform to spread misinformation
• pushes anti-Trump, anti-white narratives
Does nobody find this suspicious? Big tech is on this. How many more are like this? https://t.co/isko3QmGJM
— ELIJAH SCHAFFER (@ElijahSchaffer) April 3, 2021
We should assume that “Dr. Jialun” is a real person, but judging by the Tweets in the account’s short life it’s not a stretch to believe whoever is behind it is operating on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party. The question we’d love to have answered is why is it verified? Shill accounts are common; there are likely more bots on Twitter than there are real people. But verified accounts have a degree of influence granted to them by Big Tech tyrants that gives them broader reach. Engagement between verified accounts have their own, unique tab on Twitter that allows them to interact with each other more.
Searches for “Dr. Jialun” do not reveal any particular celebrity status. He lists himself as “Medical doctor, Molecular Biologist, Computer scientist.” None of these accomplishments are generally rewarded with verified status without a certain degree of influence otherwise. Could this be a move by the Chinese Communist Party or other entities to promote their agenda through verified accounts that they control?
His rhetoric is being called out.
This is a verified Chinese bot account. https://t.co/Yx6N18o5So
— TheQuartering (@TheQuartering) April 3, 2021
Greg Pollowitz pointed to Tweets from the past.
so the guy spreading fake news about today's attack at the Capitol also has tweets like this ==> https://t.co/A3PpKpeIhh
— Greg Pollowitz (@GPollowitz) April 2, 2021
As Gad Saad noted, it’s always Trump’s fault.
Six degrees of faux-causality. All roads lead to Trump. https://t.co/40pjnRMpSo
— Gad Saad (@GadSaad) April 3, 2021
Ian Miles Cheong called it straight up.
This is a Chinese propaganda account. https://t.co/t0zrC5FgJp
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) April 2, 2021
Good question from Hans Mahncke.
How does a CCP propagandist account with 63 followers get a blue check? https://t.co/jeHoGwgnyD
— Hans Mahncke (@HansMahncke) April 2, 2021
Erick Erickson pointed out the aftermath.
Didn’t age well. https://t.co/hHuVbwyQZ4
— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) April 2, 2021
Shenanigans indeed.
A one month old account with less than 100 followers and is verified? I call shenanigans. https://t.co/ADpHSLRaOf
— Veterans for Liberty (@Vets4AP) April 2, 2021
“Trust.”
Trust™ The™ Doctors™
Trust™ The™ Scientists™
Trust™ The™ Experts™ https://t.co/8lmM0ind1M pic.twitter.com/BXtGLWVEYP
— 𝐁𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐝𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧𝐞 𝟐 🦑🤺 (@SisyphusGoals) April 2, 2021
As Jack Hadfield at National File noted, the account follows some suspect accounts:
Following the bizarre denial from the account, it was higlighted that despite only having been created in March of last month, one of their 50 or so followers was Chen Weihua, the China Daily EU Bureau Chief, leading some to suggest that the narrative promoted by Jialun’s account was being driven by Chinese state agents.
In the time that this article was being researched, the account has taken down its bio, removed a link to the LinkedIn page, deleted the LinkedIn profile, changed its profile picture, and accumulated over 100 more followers.
Whatever shenanigans are behind this “verified” Twitter account, it’s getting noticed in all the wrong ways. If the CCP, Twitter, or anyone else wants to spread anti-American propaganda, they need to up their game.
