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False Pro-China Accounts Invade Twitter in the UK

bitterwinter.org

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Re: False Pro-China Accounts Invade Twitter in the UK

#91

Post by Juliate »

ilamont wrote: post #23

Suspicions were aroused after researchers found a third of the accounts under investigation to have been created within minutes of each other. They exclusively promoted UK-based PRC diplomats, ignoring those in other countries. So human researchers were able to spot a pretty obvious pattern. How come Twitter's own staff and algorithms never seem to catch on, despite having even more data to look at? It amazes me that…

From big co's understanding point of view, I think a more sensible option would be that Twitter doesn't look at it, or even cares, as long as it doesn't impact the bottom line.

Re: False Pro-China Accounts Invade Twitter in the UK

#92

Post by dangerface »

Ekaros wrote: post #88
pessimizer wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If paid/automated social media activity is "candy theft," the only nation states that aren't doing it are the ones who can't afford to.

I wonder if there is even nation state that can't afford it. Knowing North Korean capabilities they too probably can. And I can't think anyone who would me more limited.

True if you are too poor to build an ai and tools to spam your propaganda like the west does you could always just higher a few locals at $1 a week for better results.

Re: False Pro-China Accounts Invade Twitter in the UK

#93

Post by NineStarPoint »

sva_ wrote: post #62

> researchers found a third of the accounts under investigation to have been created within minutes of each other Things like this make me a little suspicious, since we're talking about a state-level actor. It sounds like a bait has been thrown.

While it may have more resources, state level actors are just as prone to a low level worker wanting to just get it over with so they can go home as any other large bureaucracy. Sure some plans are tripple vetted and done with extreme care, but sometimes someone just says at 4PM on a Friday “Hey Carl, can we get a few bots on these tweets?”

That said, I also wouldn’t say that just because it came out of China it has to be the government at work anyway. Plenty of small bot groups get made by a person who really cares about X thing, and there are plenty of super patriotic Chinese citizens on the Chinese web.

Re: False Pro-China Accounts Invade Twitter in the UK

#94

Post by onethought »

jhgb wrote: post #63
onethought wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve been accused of being 50c army for expressing a more neutral tone on China and challenging pro-US anti-China rhetoric. It’s actually impossible to have a reasonable conversation about China, Chinese economy, Chinese government, or Xijinping because those seperate things are all conflated into a single one. Where as if you try to conflate, Biden (or trump) with US economy, america or the america people you will q…

> China, Chinese economy, Chinese government, or Xijinping because those seperate things are all conflated into a single one Ehm...you are aware that you're talking about a one-party state? I used to live in one; it was all the same thing (except for the Xi Jinping part, of course).

No it isn’t. The tech scene in China is awesome. The startup scene is awesome. The communities I have interacted with are all awesome.

Yes political speech isn’t really a thing. Yes xi is a problem. But to miss the awesome because of that is a mistake in my opinion.

Small enterprises are largely uneffected by government. Sure Tencent and Alinaba have to jump through government hoops… but there is A LOT of business underneath that. Doing awesome stuff.

Re: False Pro-China Accounts Invade Twitter in the UK

#95

Post by onethought »

marcus_holmes wrote: post #71
3np wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't seem like you're consciously doing it but this comment falls to the exact same fallacy. That is, the party and their enforcers would be happy to agree. Yes, there's a very noisy mainority both online and abroad that will make you believe so. It's far from representative of the culture(s) and views of people in China, though.

I spent a couple of years in SE Asia, and worked in Cambodia, and my comment is based on that experience. I had a fascinating conversation with one of my staff where she explained that to criticise one's boss was absolutely taboo. Roughly equivalent to taking a dump on your boss's desk in Western culture. There's this whole concept of "social harmony" that we don't have in the West. And partly it revolves around resp…

I think there are crossovers.

There are party elites. There are also a huge number of private enterprise that are not politically involved at all. They are there to make money, or impact.

You are right about the social harmony aspect, but the younger generations interpret that as “don’t interfere with gov” … they won’t publically criticise or do any kind of political activism. But that still leaves a whole lot of things they do do.

Re: False Pro-China Accounts Invade Twitter in the UK

#96

Post by denton-scratch »

NVHacker wrote: post #66

That's hillarious - like there are any real supporters of China in the UK :).

UK universities are full of Chinese students. In Oxford, there are entire student accomodation blocks that seem to contain only Chinese students.

It's possible, but unlikely, that these students are opponents of the PRC government. They will mostly be privately funded; which means they will be from families that have done well from the PRC.

Re: False Pro-China Accounts Invade Twitter in the UK

#97

Post by jhgb »

onethought wrote: post #94
jhgb wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> China, Chinese economy, Chinese government, or Xijinping because those seperate things are all conflated into a single one Ehm...you are aware that you're talking about a one-party state? I used to live in one; it was all the same thing (except for the Xi Jinping part, of course).

No it isn’t. The tech scene in China is awesome. The startup scene is awesome. The communities I have interacted with are all awesome. Yes political speech isn’t really a thing. Yes xi is a problem. But to miss the awesome because of that is a mistake in my opinion. Small enterprises are largely uneffected by government. Sure Tencent and Alinaba have to jump through government hoops… but there is A LOT of business un…

> The tech scene in China is awesome. The startup scene is awesome. The communities I have interacted with are all awesome.

I could say the same things about my country of birth at the time when the things I said were all true. I never said that no communities can thrive under oppressive conditions.

Re: False Pro-China Accounts Invade Twitter in the UK

#98

Post by kwertyoowiyop »

heurisko wrote: post #47

A fraction of the population of the UK are on twitter, but it is used to drive media narratives. I'm skeptical, as it feels like the narratives are more to do with they are cheap to write about, rather than meaningful journalism. For example, after black players missed penalties in the Euros, there was wall-to-wall coverage on the BBC about racist comments directed at the players on twitter, provoking discussion on h…

Oh, wouldn’t it be great if reporters rarely/never wrote a story about ‘what someone said on Twitter’?

Re: False Pro-China Accounts Invade Twitter in the UK

#99

Post by kwertyoowiyop »

Octabrain wrote: post #26

At this point, I truly believe (despite this can sound utterly obvious) that social networks are not just products for "entertaining" the masses (In reality is just a honey pot for gathering your data, make a consumer profile out of your interactions and sell stuff to you later roughly speaking). I mean, it might be the case that initially were conceived strictly for this purpose, but the side effect is that it also…

They are the most powerful megaphones ever created, and anyone can rent them for pennies. We should be a lot more scared of them than we are.

Re: False Pro-China Accounts Invade Twitter in the UK

#100

Post by NVHacker »

morpheos137 wrote: post #3

defining terms is important. What is a "false" account? How do you distinguish a genuine pro-china account from cynical manipulation?

If the account pretends to belong to a British resident (excluding Chinese Embassy staff), then "genuine pro-china account" is an oxymoron.
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