Netizens bombarded the Twitter account of a Chinese state-run media outlet with images allegedly showing prisoners at a re-education camp in Xinjiang, highlighting the reaction Chinese government institutions can face on a social media platform that is inaccessible to most of its citizens.

A tweet posted Saturday by China.org.cn with details about the country’s 15-year development blueprint attracted more than 1,600 replies. Many of those replies consisted only of an image of a crowd of men in blue jumpsuits being held at what is allegedly a re-education camp in Xinjiang.

The tweet was deleted by Sunday, after being online for several hours.

Hong Kong Watch fellow Luke de Pulford and Australian MP Cassy O’Connor were among those who posted the image in response to the tweet. Some also replied with calls to boycott the 2022 Winter Olympics scheduled to take place in Beijing, images of Chinese President Xi Jinping in emperor’s clothing and images of the Taiwanese flag.

Chinese state media institutions as well as Chinese Foreign Ministry officials and overseas diplomats have increased their presence on Twitter in recent years amid a new push for so-called “wolf-warrior” diplomacy, but many have encountered a frosty reception on the platform, which is blocked in mainland China.

In recent months, Hong Kong pro-establishment politicians, such as Regina Ip, Holden Chow and Dominic Lee, have also opened Twitter accounts, with Lee saying that he was “fed up with the lies and hypocrisy of the West” and was “determined to expose those lies on Twitter.”

Their accounts were quickly given a verified blue tick, although their tweets have frequently attracted negative replies from other users who oppose the Hong Kong and Chinese governments.

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