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China Spreads Propaganda to U.S. on Facebook, a Platform it Bans at Home (nytimes.com)

Posted by msmash on from the china's-influence dept.

Paul Mozur, reporting for the New York Times: China does not allow its people to gain access to Facebook, a powerful tool for disseminating information and influencing opinion. As if to demonstrate the platform's effectiveness, outside its borders China uses it to spread state-produced propaganda around the world, including the United States (Editor's note: the link could be paywalled; alternative source). So much do China's government and companies value Facebook that the country is Facebook's biggest advertising market in Asia, even as it is the only major country in the region that blocks the social network. A look at the Facebook pages of China Central Television, the leading state-owned broadcast network better known as CCTV, and Xinhua, China's official news agency, reveals hundreds of English-language posts intended for an English-speaking audience. Each quarter China's government, through its state media agencies, spends hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy Facebook ads, according to a person with knowledge of those deals, who was unauthorized to talk publicly about the company's revenue streams. China's propaganda efforts are in the spotlight with President Trump visiting the country and American lawmakers investigating foreign powers's use of technology to sway voters in the United States.

6 of 103 comments (clear)

  1. Shocked! by sycodon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Come on people. That foreign adversaries would try to further their agendas using social networks is about a surprising as gambling in a Casablanca.

    I bet even "friendly" nations are doing this to some extent too.

    --
    When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
    1. Re:Shocked! by anegg · · Score: 4, Informative

      I would be *amazed* if the USA is not trying to further the US agenda (whatever that is) using social networks targeted at/in other countries. Is there much difference between Voice of America and such a practice?

    2. Re:Shocked! by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I would rather have foreign government propaganda than have American government censorship.

      Let's not forget that the major influence of the Russians on the American presidential election was their leaking of Hillary's collusion with the DNC ... which was the truth.

      Sure, Hillary might have won if the DNC collusion had remained secret ... but she also might have won if she had been more ethical and there had been no dirt to leak.

    3. Re:Shocked! by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Informative

      That is a silly argument. Should we have censored Watergate reporting because it only hurt one side? Should Woodward and Bernstein have been required to wait until they had some counterbalancing dirt on the Democrats?

      The Constitution says "no law" abridging free speech. It doesn't make an exception for "unbalanced" speech, nor does it make an exception for censorship of foreigners.

    4. Re:Shocked! by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The issue (which a lot on the right gloss over and ignore-note that I am not necessarily calling you right wing)

      I did not vote for Trump, and I oppose pretty much everything he stands for. I am not defending Trump at all, I am defending the Constitution and the principle of freedom of expression. It is sad that so many people feel that is "right wing".

  2. Re:Here comes the alt-right by Train0987 · · Score: 5, Funny

    It would make more sense that you're the Russian! spy sent here to make Democrats look like imbeciles. The Russians! collusion narrative fell apart a long time ago. Now it just looks like a Clinton campaign op meant to excuse her loss to the circus clown and giver her the nomination again 2020 on the premise that The Russians! stole it from her in 2016.