Twitter has locked the account of China's US embassy for a tweet that defended the country's policy towards Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang.
The US-based social media platform said the tweet violated its stand against "dehumanising" people.
China's Foreign Ministry said on Thursday it was confused by the move and that it was the embassy's responsibility to call out disinformation and clarify the truth.
The Chinese Embassy account, @ChineseEmbinUS, posted a tweet this month that said that Uighur women had been emancipated and were no longer "baby-making machines", citing a study reported by state-backed newspaper China Daily.
The tweet was removed by Twitter and replaced by a label stating it was no longer available.
The Chinese embassy's account has not posted any new tweets since January 9.
Twitter's suspension of the embassy's account came a day after the Trump administration, in its final hours, accused China of committing genocide in Xinjiang, a finding endorsed by the incoming Biden administration.
Twitter is blocked in China but has been embraced by Chinese state media and diplomats, many of whom have taken to the platform to aggressively defend the country's positions in what has come to be known as 'Wolf Warrior' diplomacy.
The Chinese embassy in Washington, which joined Twitter in June 2019, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a briefing on Thursday that China's Foreign Ministry was confused by Twitter's move.
"There are numerous reports and information relating to Xinjiang that are against China. It's a responsibility for our embassy in the US to clarify the truth," she said.
"We hope they won't apply double standards on this issue. We hope they can discern what is correct and truthful."
China has repeatedly rejected accusations of abuse in Xinjiang, where a UN panel has said at least a million Uighurs and other Muslims had been detained in camps.
This is not the first time Twitter has taken action against China-linked accounts. In June last year, it removed more than 170,000 accounts it said were tied to a Beijing-backed influence operation that deceptively spread messages favourable to the Chinese government.
Twitter's move also follows the removal of the account of former US president Donald Trump, which had 88 million followers, citing the risk of violence after his supporters stormed the US Capitol this month.
Australian Associated Press
