China's Influence Via WeChat Is 'Flying Under the Radar' of Most Western Democracies (zdnet.com) 19
China's WeChat, like most social networks, is a haven for disinformation and "fake news". Less well-known, at least in the West, is its role in mobilising Chinese diaspora communities to support particular political policies or people, according to a report. schwit1 shares the report: These activities are coordinated through a system known as the United Front, a network of party and state agencies that are responsible for influencing purportedly independent groups outside the Chinese Communist Party. At the very top, the United Front Work Department is led by China's fourth most senior political leader, Wang Yang. President Xi Jinping and his family have been involved in United Front work for decades. "Where United Front really works their biggest magic is actually on social media WeChat," says Maree Ma, general manager of Vision Times, a leading Chinese-language Australian media outlet. WeChat's private groups are capped at 500 members, but according to Ma, there's "hundreds" of United Front organisations in Australia, each of them with many of these groups.
I only read Slashdot (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
If only that were true. It has become the fashion among moderators on this site to mod down people speaking critically of China, even if they are doing it solely by sharing facts.
Re: (Score:1)
Social Media Needs reform. (Score:1)
The problem with social media is the fact how easily it is to share information. Are you crazy boomer parents actively lying to you about the evils of those LiBeRaLs! No they believe what they say, and they feel like they have to actively protect you from these evil forces they have been hearing about. The information they get sometimes comes from seemingly reliable sources, which often had came from other seemingly reliable sources, which had originated from a bad actor trying to get people all up and arm
Re: (Score:1)
When you say "Social Media Needs reform," what does "reform" refer to? I think I might have completely missed your point.
And all your complaints about social media, seem to generalize. I don't think there's any type of conversation happening on a website today, that also didn't happen on websites 20 years ago. Or on a BBS 10 years before that. Or at a bar, any time (except right now, while the bars are closed). I don't know any time of life or any setting where I didn't sometimes run into crazies.
The only
Re: (Score:2)
Are you crazy boomer parents actively lying to you about the evils of those LiBeRaLs!
No, they're lying about their competence to make declarative statements about those liberals, when they've got all their information from a single source. The lie is that they are informed.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil (Score:5, Insightful)
It doesn't help that half of this country, from Hollywood through manufacturing, is bought off to stay silent on these kinds of things, lest they suddenly be cut off from that market.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Democracy's Radar (Score:2)
Why would other people getting together for discussion need to be on democracy's radar?
If it's out of fear that they are talking about me (or plotting against me) behind my back, well, that's basically impossible to stop anyway. It's not like I can read every site on the internet, and it's even harder to find every onion or eepsite.
You're asking for an impossible problem, and for what? To become East Germany?
Paranoia will destroy ya.
Which democracies? (Score:2)
Huh? We got democracies on this planet?
Or did you mean descended-from-royalty corporate fatcat oligarchy councils that state they are "representing" you, yet "somehow" never do, and "somehow" can't be "voted" out.
(Overuse of quotes sadly necessary.)
Next you'll be telling us you're calling China and the former Soviets "communists". ^^
We have listened TikTok also spying (Score:1)