China: Foreign Ministry called on Twitter to shut shutting accounts critical of Beijing

China's foreign ministry on Friday called on Twitter to shut down accounts targeting Beijing, saying that China was the biggest victim of misinformation over the coronavirus pandemic.

"If Twitter wants to make a difference, it should shut down those accounts that have been organized and coordinated to attack and discredit China," said foreign ministry spokesman Hua Chunying.

Hua's comments come after Twitter announced it had deleted over 170,000 accounts linked to the Chinese government, which the company said were involved in peddling narratives favorable to the ruling Communist Party.

In the past year, the Chinese government has aggressively pushed its narratives on protests in Hong Kong and on Beijing's handling of the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak.

The narratives have promoted views that depict Hong Kong demonstrators as lawless rioters, and claim there were no delays or gaps in information from China during the coronavirus outbreak - despite evidence to the contrary.

Also on Friday, Hua attacked the British and American governments for criticizing new proposed national security legislation for Hong Kong, calling it foreign interference.

She also warned the U.S. that restrictions on capital flows to Hong Kong proposed by Washington would be counterproductive, given US commercial interests in the territory.

"If the US takes actions that harm Hong Kong's interests, it will only end up harming itself," she said.

(Image credit: Representative)