X Takes Down Bot Accounts Attacking Falun Gong

In a decisive move against coordinated online manipulation, social media platform X has removed a network of bot accounts actively targeting Falun Gong—a religious belief and spiritual practice rooted in traditional Chinese culture—and also spreading negative narratives against Shen Yun, an American classical Chinese dance company founded by Falun Gong practitioners. This action, reported by The Epoch Times, marks a significant step in curbing disinformation and digital harassment linked to Beijing-backed propaganda efforts.

Online disinformation

The Falun Dafa Information Center (FDIC) reported that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has launched an unprecedented campaign in late 2023 to sabotage Shen Yun and eliminate Falun Gong globally. Central to this campaign is strategic manipulation that attempts to weaponize mainstream American media. The CCP views both Falun Gong and Shen Yun as existential threats because they expose the regime’s long-standing human rights abuses.

Over the past eight months, The New York Times (NYT) has published at least 10 articles distorting the image of both the dance company and the religious belief. Notably, eight of these articles were also posted on the outlet’s Chinese-language edition, which is accessible in China.

Recent data from BuzzSumo, a social media analytics tool, indicates that a network of thousands of inauthentic X accounts was systematically employed to boost these NYT articles. One article—a Chinese-language version of an attack piece on Shen Yun Performing Arts—was boosted so aggressively that it became the most shared NYT article on X in over a year.

An analysis by The Epoch Times using BuzzSumo revealed that an unusually high number of threadbare X accounts—with few or no followers—were responsible for posting the NYT’s main attack article on Shen Yun published in August 2024, along with nine other related pieces. The Chinese-language version of the main hit piece was shared and reposted more than 28,000 times, making it the most shared NYT article on the platform in the past year and the second most shared in more than two years.

Even more striking, fewer than 6 percent of the accounts sharing the article had more than 50 followers—a stark contrast to the typical scenario where over 90 percent of accounts for other NYT or Epoch Times articles have such reach. In fact, 80 percent of these accounts had no followers at all.

Low follower counts, repetitive posts, minimal engagement, and high-frequency posting are well-known indicators of bot activity.

A manual review of hundreds of these low-follower accounts by The Epoch Times uncovered clear signs of inauthentic activity. Many were established around April 2024 or later and exclusively posted anti-Falun Gong content—some only ever posting one or more of the NYT attack articles on Shen Yun, while others disseminated a deluge of anti-Falun Gong material, including crude cartoons that mimicked CCP propaganda portraying Falun Gong as evil. Although some accounts date back to late 2023 or even 2019, those older profiles typically began with generic content before shifting to targeted disinformation campaigns.

A cybersecurity expert said that the coordinated campaign looked like a ”nation-state automated bot attack.” X took down the accounts after the investigation findings were shared with the platform and it conducted its own further analysis.

Implications for digital discourse

The takedown of these bot accounts highlights the broader challenges social media platforms face in policing content and managing coordinated disinformation campaigns. Digital spaces have become fertile ground for state-sponsored operations, and removing such networks is crucial for preserving online integrity and protecting authentic voices.

The FDIC has tracked similar troll accounts. In a June 2023 report, researchers noted a surge in fake Twitter accounts spreading anti-Falun Gong propaganda, including over 200 detected accounts between April and May 2023. These accounts often disguise themselves with Western names and profile pictures.

By targeting and eliminating these bot accounts, X has disrupted a key channel through which disinformation was propagated, undermining efforts to malign Falun Gong and Shen Yun.