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Twitter is blocked in China, but its state news agency is buying promoted tweets

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Re: Twitter is blocked in China, but its state news agency is buying promoted tweets

#31

Post by Y-bar »

partiallypro wrote: post #19
rococode wrote: post #7

Twitter just posted this statement: https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2019/informati... And a new policy banning all state-controlled media from advertising: https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2019/advertisi... I think this is an interesting example of recent discussions about the disproportionate influence of social media companies on information. Obviously, it doesn't seem right for a governm…

Why would it be ok for the Chinese government to influence public opinion on Hong Kong, but Russia can't influence public opinion on presidential elections? Feels like it should be both or none.

Neither is ok, but Jack likes the guys who chants “Russia is our friend”:

https://boingboing.net/2018/09/03/twitter-was-going-to-ban-c...

https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2017/10/10/when-white-na...

Re: Twitter is blocked in China, but its state news agency is buying promoted tweets

#32

Post by mcphage »

rococode wrote: post #7

Twitter just posted this statement: https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2019/informati... And a new policy banning all state-controlled media from advertising: https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2019/advertisi... I think this is an interesting example of recent discussions about the disproportionate influence of social media companies on information. Obviously, it doesn't seem right for a governm…

> But it's also worrisome that a single company has the power to shut down an entire government trying to spread its ideas.

Twitter doesn't have the power to shut down an entire government trying to spread its ideas. Not by a long shot—the very idea is laughable. Twitter has the power to shut down an entire government trying to spread its ideas via twitter. And that is in no way worrisome; that is a very good thing! If it were impossible for Twitter to do so, that would be worrisome.

Re: Twitter is blocked in China, but its state news agency is buying promoted tweets

#33

Post by psychrometer »

Invictus0 wrote: post #8

Many celebrities have also come out against the protests, such as Jackie Chan. I wonder if they were bought out or threatened by the government in order to do that.

Jackie Chan has a history of defending the CCP and propagandizing for them.

"Taiwan election biggest joke in the world" http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-03/29/content_... https://archive.fo/QYKF

"He was named official Narcotics Control Ambassador by Chinese police in 2009." https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-32620313 https://archive.fo/hFrnF

"we Chinese need to be controlled" https://web.archive.org/web/20090421223810/http://news.yahoo... https://archive.fo/pigfI

"Anger after movie star tells mainland newspaper his hometown has become ‘like South Korea’ and that it should limit the right to protest" https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1103899/jackie-c... [Note this is about 2012 protests not 2019]

"Jackie Chan back in action, branding US more corrupt than China" https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1125813/jackie-c...

"Parents disliked the presence of Jackie Chan in the program" https://www.theepochtimes.com/chinese-netizens-criticize-man... https://archive.fo/lKp1J

"The 63-year-old Chan has aligned himself closely with the authoritarian views of the Chinese Communist Party in recent decades and is now widely seen across the Chinese-speaking world as a mouthpiece for the Beijing regime." https://www.theepochtimes.com/jackie-chan-pushes-to-outlaw-s... https://archive.fo/Ewked

"Jackie Chan’s multilingual film Kung Fu Yoga has courted controversy for having an Indian character allegedly praise Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)." https://silverscreen.in/news/jackie-chans-kung-fu-yoga-pro-c... https://archive.fo/tVsQy

Re: Twitter is blocked in China, but its state news agency is buying promoted tweets

#34

Post by ploxiln »

I think people worry too much about these "misinformation campaigns". I think the idea behind this worry is "most people would not disagree with me unless they were brainwashed - we can't let people I disagree with do that".

I'm more on the free speech side, of course. I'm definitely not a fan of the Chinese government. I like free speech, after all! But I don't really think these promoted misleading tweets are swaying the opinion of most north-americans or europeans. And I don't like this new world order where your message must align with modern liberal western ideas, in order for you to express it on a popular medium. This trend is honestly a bit scary. We're getting into orthodoxy here.

Don't freak out that some people are broadcasting a message you don't agree with on a popular medium, and maybe some other people out there will be influenced by it. Growing up as a geek/nerd, I got accustomed to nobody I was around really understanding and agreeing with me. It's not the end of the world. But orthodoxy is a bit scary.

Re: Twitter is blocked in China, but its state news agency is buying promoted tweets

#35

Post by laughinghan »

rococode wrote: post #7

Twitter just posted this statement: https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2019/informati... And a new policy banning all state-controlled media from advertising: https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2019/advertisi... I think this is an interesting example of recent discussions about the disproportionate influence of social media companies on information. Obviously, it doesn't seem right for a governm…

it's also worrisome that a single company has the power to shut down an entire government trying to spread its ideas

To be clear, that's not what Twitter is doing. They specifically state:

"Affected media entities are free to continue to use their Twitter account(s) to organically participate in public conversation"

What they're doing is blocking paid ads by governments and deceptive practices by everyone. But they're fine with governments spreading their ideas on Twitter the old-fashioned way, by tweeting things under their own name and getting lots of likes/retweets.

And, obviously, Twitter has no power whatsoever to shut down governments spreading their ideas the old-fashioned way off of Twitter.

Re: Twitter is blocked in China, but its state news agency is buying promoted tweets

#36

Post by sverige »

Y-bar wrote: post #31
partiallypro wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would it be ok for the Chinese government to influence public opinion on Hong Kong, but Russia can't influence public opinion on presidential elections? Feels like it should be both or none.

Neither is ok, but Jack likes the guys who chants “Russia is our friend”: https://boingboing.net/2018/09/03/twitter-was-going-to-ban-c... https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2017/10/10/when-white-na...

Twitter permanently banned Alex Jones a couple of days after the above article was published.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/06/twitter-permanently-bans-ale...

Re: Twitter is blocked in China, but its state news agency is buying promoted tweets

#37

Post by rhizome »

ploxiln wrote: post #34

I think people worry too much about these "misinformation campaigns". I think the idea behind this worry is "most people would not disagree with me unless they were brainwashed - we can't let people I disagree with do that". I'm more on the free speech side, of course. I'm definitely not a fan of the Chinese government. I like free speech, after all! But I don't really think these promoted misleading tweets are swayi…

There is so much fallacious thinking here it would make me look like a pedantic doof to list them all. Suffice it to suggest that you consider accounting for the fact that there are real things actually happening outside of your mind.

Re: Twitter is blocked in China, but its state news agency is buying promoted tweets

#38

Post by huac »

tnolet wrote: post #24
dantheman wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is this any different than the New York Times or the Nightly News? They control to a large extent the news people see.

These are journalistic organizations. Not tech companies selling ads. Sure, newspapers sell a ton of ads, but they tend to balance the news and the commercial sides way better and more delicate than your average SV tech corps.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_Consent

Re: Twitter is blocked in China, but its state news agency is buying promoted tweets

#39

Post by sverige »

mattfrommars wrote: post #26
seppin wrote: post #2

Between this, and mainland Chinese protesting while living/studying abroad whereas they wouldn't have the right to do so at home, the irony is palpable.

You are onto something which had been bothering me yesterday. I have a Chinese room mate who yesterday showed me images/videos 'anti-protester'and exclaiming how he wanted to be part of. Note in the past and still continues to be against the Chinese government and expresses disapproval of them. I found it very odd of him to side with the anti-protestors because 'I love China and these protestors hate Chinese'. I told…

> I told him I am pretty sure they can't because the regime is not communist but instead totalitarian.

Honest question: which communist government isn't / wasn't totalitarian?

Re: Twitter is blocked in China, but its state news agency is buying promoted tweets

#40

Post by eznoonze »

rococode wrote: post #7

Twitter just posted this statement: https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2019/informati... And a new policy banning all state-controlled media from advertising: https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2019/advertisi... I think this is an interesting example of recent discussions about the disproportionate influence of social media companies on information. Obviously, it doesn't seem right for a governm…

More like a government has the power to shutdown all except their own ideas from the internet.
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