Twitter blocks the Chinese embassy in the US for tweeting about Uyghurs

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Twitter's headquarters in San Francisco

Photo: STEPHEN LAM / REUTERS

Twitter has blocked the user account of the Chinese embassy in the USA because of a tweet about dealing with the Uighur minority.

A tweet was published via the @ChineseEmbinUS account saying that Uighur women are no longer »birthing machines«.

The English-language original spoke of "baby making machines".

The statement referred to a study reported by the China Daily, a government-affiliated newspaper.

The defense of government policy in the Uyghur region of Xinjang violates the guidelines of the US corporation to uphold human rights and against dehumanization, Twitter said on Wednesday.

A spokeswoman referred to the Twitter rules, according to which violations of the human rights of ethnic groups due to their religion, caste, age, disability, illness, national origin, race or ethnicity are prohibited.

The tweet has been removed and a corresponding note can be seen in its place.

But in such cases Twitter also requires the account holder to manually delete the post.

Reports of Forced Sterilization and Forced Abortion

According to a UN report, at least one million Uyghurs and other Muslims are being held in detention and re-education camps in the Xinjiang region.

The German anthropologist Adrian Zenz accuses the Chinese government of administering contraceptives and using IUDs to women in the camps;

that they have to endure compulsory gynecological examinations, compulsory sterilizations and forced abortions.

The government has rejected this as wrong.

The new US administration has followed the previous administration's assessment that the Chinese government is committing genocide against the Uyghurs.

Twitter is blocked in China itself, but state media and diplomats use the platform to communicate outside the country.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington, DC, has not yet commented on Twitter's actions.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said it was confused by Twitter's actions.

There have been many anti-China reports on the subject and it is the message's duty to spread the truth.

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