Nearly 100 fake Twitter accounts swarmed to spread China's messaging about tennis star Peng Shuai after she accused a former vice premier of sexual assault

• Nearly 100 fake Twitter accounts amplified China's messaging about tennis star Peng Shuai.
• The accounts mirrored past campaigns, a New York Times and ProPublica investigation revealed.

Nearly 100 fake Twitter accounts jumped to defend China's narrative about tennis star Peng Shuai after she accused a former official of sexual assault, according to a new investigation.

An analysis The New York Times and ProPublica published on Wednesday revealed that 97 accounts were promoting Chinese state-sponsored media reports about Shuai's wellbeing.

Shuai, a Chinese tennis star, vanished from the public eye after accusing former vice-premier Zhang Gaoli of sexual assault on November 2.

Her disappearance led to public outrage and international concern. The Women's Tennis Organization and fellow tennis star Naomi Osaka spoke out demanding answers.

In the weeks since, she appeared to make contact with the International Olympic Committee — which faced criticism for appeasing China.

Chinese state media figures and outlets have tried to convince people Shuai's fine, including posting photos of the tennis star posing with stuffed animals.

The state claims are the ones a slew of fake Twitter accounts backed, the Times and ProPublica investigation revealed.

Zero followers and zero following

Almost all of the accounts promoting Chinese media messaging had no followers and weren't following anyone else, the investigation found.

One account quote-tweeted a Chinese state media member Hu Xijin's video of Shuai purportedly showing up to a tennis match in Beijing in late November.

"Tennis is Peng Shuai's career, and her attending events couldn't be more normal," the tweet read, according to the investigation.

Another account quote-tweeted the same tweet, according to screenshots included in the report.

"Stop hyping peng Shuai incident and let her live a peaceful life, ok?" it read.

Reporters were able identify the accounts because they were posting on weekdays between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. local time, the report said, which is similar to past Chinese social media campaigns The Times has identified.

The report said the accounts were also fairly new and had few other posts, except some that focused on past targets of Chinese social media campaigns.

According to The Times and ProPublica, Twitter removed the 97 accounts they identified, and Xijin denied knowing that fake accounts were engaging with his tweets.

Campaigning outside of Twitter

Twitter isn't the only platform where Chinese social media campaigns have been identified.

Facebook said last week that users, some associated with Chinese state infrastructure companies, created a fake scientist to spread COVID-19 conspiracy theories, Insider's Katie Canales previously reported.

The misinformation, which spread over the summer, suggested the US was trying to blame China for the pandemic.

Chinese state media picked up that narrative, too.