Twitter on Tuesday rejected the Australian government's request to suppress a tweet from a representative in Beijing attacking the Australian military.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian sparked outrage in Canberra on Monday by posting a photo montage in which a man, dressed as an Australian soldier, holds a bloody knife against the throat of an afghan child.
The case comes days after the publication of a report on war crimes allegedly committed by Australian soldiers in Afghanistan between 2005 and 2016.
To read also: Benjamin Sire: "Twitter, the mirror with larks"
Twitter claimed to have flagged the tweet as "
sensitive
" before adding that comments on topical political issues or "
threatening foreign policy statements
" from official government accounts do not generally violate its rules. .
On Monday, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison called the tweet "
disgusting
".
He called on Twitter to take it down and China to apologize.
Some countries have also expressed concern following this tweet.
"
The image that was used does not correspond to the facts, it is not an authentic image, so we have communicated it directly to the Chinese authorities,
" New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told reporters.
The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs considered this tweet to be "
not worthy of the methods one is entitled to expect from the diplomacy of a country like China
".
"
The published image is particularly shocking and the commentary is tendentious and insulting to all countries whose armed forces have been or have been engaged in Afghanistan for nearly twenty years,
" he added.
In a sober statement, Kabul said it was "
working jointly
" with Canberra to investigate suspicions about the Australian military, adding that both China and Australia are "
key players
" in the international peace process in Afghanistan.
For his part, a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Canberra accused Australia of doing too much about the incident.
"
The rage and roar of some Australian politicians and media is nothing but misinterpretation and overreacting to Mr Zhao's tweet
," the spokesperson said.
To read also: On Twitter, "
the real information does not drive out the false ones
", warns the CSA.
Tension rose to a notch in Canberra on Tuesday after the
Guardian published
a photo that the daily said was of an Australian soldier drinking beer from the prosthetic leg of a deceased Taliban.
