The Chinese Embassy in the United Kingdom has asked that Twitter investigate after a pornographic message on the social media site liked the official account of its ambassador.
A human rights lawyer on Twitter shared a screenshot on Wednesday showing that Chinese Ambassador Liu Xiaoming enjoyed the message.
The Embassy reacted immediately, issuing a statement Wednesday night, stating, "Recently, some anti-China elements violently assaulted Ambassador Liu Xiaoming's Twitter account and used contemptible tactics to mislead the public. The Embassy reported this to the Twitter corporation and advised the latter to carry out a comprehensive inquiry and to take this matter seriously.
Twitter refused to comment on the incident.
The official Twitter account of the Ambassador actually contains just two comments, all of which are the Ambassador's own tweets.
As most prominent foreign social media sites, Twitter is being blocked in China, while Chinese social media such as Weibo, China's Twitter edition, are open about contentious issues to prevent effect from the authorities.
However, Chinese officials, especially in the foreign ministry, have recently taken to Twitter and other social media channels to campaign for China's official stance, denigrate criticism and refute criticism of human rights, foreign policy and other topics.
