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Buying Influence: How China manipulates Facebook and Twitter

nytimes.com

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Re: Buying Influence: How China manipulates Facebook and Twitter

#91

Post by seibelj »

fc373745 wrote: post #66

[flagged]

Have you read this book? https://www.amazon.com/Red-Roulette-Insiders-Corruption-Veng...

Desmond Shum fled China with his son after his wife, one of the richest women in China, was disappeared back in 2017. He was told all sorts of things, like a bullet was put in her head, but supposedly she called him briefly shortly after the book was published (he doesn't know for sure). His son (12 years old) often cries uncontrollably, as his mother has disappeared and not contacted him in years. He gives a detailed explanation of how business and power works in China, and to say it is anything like America or other Western liberal countries would be patently absurd.

Re: Buying Influence: How China manipulates Facebook and Twitter

#92

Post by bgroat »

seibelj wrote: post #83
bgroat wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a Canadian, but I often watch American rallies on the news. I always laugh when some American protestors say they're being oppressed/the current regime is fascistic. I mean, you're gathered, in a crowd, often armed, with your message being broadcast, with a reasonable expectation (I know, I know, not always - especially for certain demographics) of going home/surviving. I'm not sure they really understand what fa…

I'm happy when people are motivated to protest, regardless of the issue or political affiliation. Better than just taking it on the chin, over and over, slowly boiling as politicians make things worse.

I'm going to edit my parent comment for more context, because I realize my initial comment was unclear

Re: Buying Influence: How China manipulates Facebook and Twitter

#93

Post by the_af »

johnsolo1701 wrote: post #57

When something negative about China is posted: "Everyone does it!" When something negative about the US is posted: "Downfall of an empire!"

I don't think this is true.

I think for most of HN's readership, China is the current Big Bad. There will be exceptions, like there always are for anything, but in general this will be true.

The US is something to be criticized because many HN readers either live in the US or interact with US companies/tech. Critiquing what one knows is to be expected. But they do not consistently describe every action of an American company, business or initiative as some sort of lie or conspiracy to suppress dissent. Some companies, they do; but many they do not. What would be HN's readership instinctive reaction to a mainland Chinese company that claimed to be like YC?

Re: Buying Influence: How China manipulates Facebook and Twitter

#94

Post by nitrogen »

bgroat wrote: post #73
echelon wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

I'm a Canadian, but I often watch American rallies on the news. I always laugh when some American protestors say they're being oppressed/the current regime is fascistic. I mean, you're gathered, in a crowd, often armed, with your message being broadcast, with a reasonable expectation (I know, I know, not always - especially for certain demographics) of going home/surviving. I'm not sure they really understand what fa…

The existence of worse problems does not make other problems go away. It's reasonable and desirable to strive for a better future no matter how good the present is.

Re: Buying Influence: How China manipulates Facebook and Twitter

#95

Post by mzs »

endisneigh wrote: post #17

Which countries don’t do this? What China is doing is bad, but is this some sort of new development? Russia, Germany, France to name a few have been caught doing the same thing. Not to mention the USA. Facebook and Twitter need to handle this issue. This type of stuff is going on meanwhile they’re banning people for the stupidest most innocuous actions.

Excuse me? Please link to articles of German and French police doing this:

>The Shanghai police are looking to create hundreds of fake accounts on Twitter, Facebook and other major social media platforms. The police department emphasizes that the task is time sensitive, suggesting that it wants to be ready to unleash the accounts quickly to steer discussion.

Re: Buying Influence: How China manipulates Facebook and Twitter

#96

Post by hutzlibu »

foepys wrote: post #58
andreilys wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's ultimately a gradient, some countries are more aggressive with their astroturfing effort. China's astroturfing for example has gotten so bad, that the "50 cent army" meme has become pervasive and well-known to mostly anyone that spends time online. I honestly worry that with the development around language models like GPT-3, the internet as we know it will be completely blanketed with astro-turfed content by lan…

I am very certain that within 10 years we will all fail at distinguishing bots from real people posting online. What that future holds is scary and I hope that humanity will be smart enough to not destroy democracy just because Russia, China, et cetera told them lies via those bots.

The turing test is still far away from solving.

And generic troll posts are nothing new and the comment sections under most news articles not worth reading as of today already.

And if wars could be started because of shitposting bots - then there is something very wrong with the decision making of when to start wars.

Re: Buying Influence: How China manipulates Facebook and Twitter

#97

Post by 88840-8855 »

gentleman11 wrote: post #21

Imagine living somewhere like China and not liking it. It would be hellish, you couldn’t even talk about it without a police visit or your boss passing trouble along to you. A giant human spirit grinder

No post body was provided.

Re: Buying Influence: How China manipulates Facebook and Twitter

#98

Post by foverzar »

Jerrrry wrote: post #67
foverzar wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The idea of "whataboutism" and attempting to present it as something inherently wrong awfully seems like a convenient way to dismiss uncomfortable points of the discussion and turn it into yet another two minutes hate. Comparing how different agents deal with similar problems is not a thoughtcrime, you know. It is quite a healthy way of understanding how such problems arise and how to deal with them.

whatboutism is whataboutism

So where exactly do you draw the line between "whataboutism" and asserting similarities?

Re: Buying Influence: How China manipulates Facebook and Twitter

#99

Post by zhoujianfu »

vmception wrote: post #23

So I actually paid for subscriptions to a couple of these news sites and they keep forgetting my session and lack a deeplinking feature to their app which doesnt forget my session I would rather they starve due to lack of revenue at this point so they actually do something competitive

I don’t understand why a site like a news site would EVER time out your session. Or at least not unless there’s been like 6+ months of inactivity. So crazy every time I visit nytimes.com (from the same phone) I have to sign in again.

Re: Buying Influence: How China manipulates Facebook and Twitter

#100

Post by hutzlibu »

chroem- wrote: post #80
hutzlibu wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do not read anything, close of a statement "cambodian genocide is just us propaganda" What I read is: "What filters through to the American public is a seriously distorted version of the evidence available, emphasizing alleged Khmer Rouge atrocities and downplaying or ignoring the crucial U.S. role, direct and indirect, in the torment that Cambodia has suffered" a much more nuanced statement.

Are we reading the same quote? He is calling reporting about the genocide propaganda.

I am reading, he is calling some reporting possible propaganda.
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