If there’s one thing the Chinese are really good at, it’s imitation. We been through it already with Zuckerboy, Musky, et al, busily evading responsibility for exploiting social media’s dark side since forever. I guess the government only gets really worried about it when the threat becomes existential to themselves.
In Small Part…
Mandiant Threat Intelligence reported in June 2019 that the People’s Republic of China created a network of hundreds of inauthentic multilanguage accounts across social media, including on TikTok, and attempted to “physically mobilize protesters in the U.S.”
As part of this campaign, short videos on TikTok and other platforms discrediting Chinese dissidents and U.S. officials were created and promoted to the feeds of U.S. citizens. Many of the videos provided the targeted individuals’ contact information and home addresses, Mandiant said.
In 2021, the PRC sponsored a campaign that targeted Asian Americans with thousands of posts urging them to protest the profiling of Asians in the U.S. on April 24 in New York City. The posts, illustrated with a large wrist smashing the “whites,” urged Asian Americans to “fight back.” Mandiant observed later reports saying that the protest was “successful,” with other minority groups joining the Asian Americans.
There’s no end to the options and opportunities out there if you need an Internet platform to advertise some product, good or service. Free access to a big user base certainly is valuable, but free is never REALLY free. Just figure out what it’s worth to you, personally.
