Mubasher: Twitter and Facebook suspended accounts believed to be tied to a Chinese campaign against anti-government protests in Hong Kong, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) said.

Twitter took down 936 accounts associated to a “significant state-backed information operation” originating from within China, Twitter was quoted by the WSJ on Monday.

“These accounts were deliberately and specifically attempting to sow political discord in Hong Kong, including undermining the legitimacy and political positions of the protest movement on the ground,” Twitter said in a blog post.

Following Twitter’s disclosure of the Chinese activity, Facebook removed five accounts and seven pages, with a reach of over 15,000 accounts, and three groups with more than 2000 members “based on their behaviour, not the content they posted.”

“Although the people behind this activity attempted to conceal their identities, our investigation found links to individuals associated with the Chinese government,” Facebook was quoted by the WSJ.

Demonstrations have swept Hong Kong over the past two months, in protest to a proposed bill that would have allowed the extradition of suspects from Hong Kong to mainland China.

Beijing repeated its proposal to deploy its own security forces, to restore order.

Twitter and Facebook have been under pressure to counter state-backed disinformation operations, after accusations that Russia interfered in the 2016 US presidential election.

Last January, both social media giants removed hundreds of fake accounts originating from Iran and Venezuela to spread misinformation on their networks.

On a side note, Twitter on Monday announced that it would end running advertising from state media on its platform.

It also removed a widely circulated advertisement by China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency, which criticised the protest movement.