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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

#41

Post by Y-bar »

sverige wrote: post #36
Y-bar wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

Spencer (the neo-nazi), not Jones (the conspiracy theorist slash propagandist), is the one who loves Russia and who Jack is friendly with.

Spencer is still active on Twitter where he still posts white supremacy stuff.

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

#42

Post by Cybiote »

SllX wrote: post #29
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…

Not to undermine your concerns, for you raise fair questions, but this is justifiable behavior on Twitter’s part for a simple reason: Twitter is blocked in PRC. It seems fair to block the activities of even entire governments to operate on a platform that is itself blocked from operating normally in that country. Governments are not above reproach or criticism anymore than corporations are. If PRC will not subject it…

I think the ethics on this is quite clear. PRC is not trying to share their ideas in a fair manner. Rather, they are trying to shape and manipulate beliefs by distorting the amount of support there is for their preferred take. It's next level propaganda.

If not for the fact that hundreds, perhaps thousands, of bots are being coordinated to create an illusion of weight for some consensus, things would indeed be murkier. As it is, the PRC is currently acting disingenuously.

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

#44

Post by wtdata »

dantheman wrote: post #13
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…

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

Because you know that what you see in NYT and NN voices mainly the opinion of their editor/journalists, while Twitter can give you the illusion that the opinions you see reaching consensus there, come from your peers.

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

#45

Post by wtdata »

theturtletalks wrote: post #10
ausjke wrote: post #3

many sites are blocked too, but the government agents can access them freely all the time, ironic

Also ironic is China's elite reaping the benefits of democracy while oppressing their own people.

Democracy? I think you mean Capitalism. The two things, although usually existing together, are not the same thing.

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

#46

Post by improvehk »

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 was pro-democracy... back in the 80s:

https://i.imgur.com/luEftKL.jpg

Then China got big and rich so Jackie could not piss off his biggest market.

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

#47

Post by the_resistence »

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…

Do not seek or expect Western style logic. They have no anchor to a reality that you and I know. They have a horrible jumble of countervailing thoughts which lead to chaos and inertia. Just the way the powers that be want it.

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

#48

Post by the_resistence »

psychrometer wrote: post #33
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.o…

Will never watch another of his movies again.

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

#49

Post by jfnixon »

laughinghan wrote: post #35
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'r…

By the old-fashioned way on twitter, don't you mean "running ginormous bot-farms tweeting propaganda?" Because I doubt the PRC will be restrained to simply posting tweets under the bluecheck PRC account.

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

#50

Post by laughinghan »

jfnixon wrote: post #49
laughinghan wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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'r…

By the old-fashioned way on twitter, don't you mean "running ginormous bot-farms tweeting propaganda?" Because I doubt the PRC will be restrained to simply posting tweets under the bluecheck PRC account.

Huh? I'm sure PRC will try to do that, but Twitter won't be fine with it. Twitter will try to stop them, as described in the original article.
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