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China's state media buys Meta ads pushing Russia's line on war

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Re: China's state media buys Meta ads pushing Russia's line on war

#161
>Good WSJ article on Russia vs. China. In a nutshell, China miscalculated the situation. They will likely look to limit their bet (on Russia) for fear of becoming Russia 2.0 to the West. [1]

The tweet is from Neil Cybart and WSJ. You may know him as one of the more accurate Apple analysts. And most people still to this day think either China miscalculated it, or China's official stance is somewhat unclear. ( Paul Graham )

And as usual, Benedict Evans has much better take on the situation. Mostly likely because of his major in History.

[1] https://twitter.com/neilcybart/status/1500825861242724352

Re: China's state media buys Meta ads pushing Russia's line on war

#162
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

I don’t know, didn’t he say that all Americans have been tested for COVID-19 on a national TV advertisement? I’m absolutely certain that that claim wasn’t fact checked.

I, for one, have never taken a covid test.

Re: China's state media buys Meta ads pushing Russia's line on war

#163

Political propaganda has no place on these advertising platforms. Deeper pockets shouldn't mean a louder voice on these matters.

Do you also think the US army should stop running recruitment ads targeting teens? What about BP advertisements which are really just to get political support? What is political propaganda is a very… political question.

> What is political propaganda is a very… political question.

Good thing that's not the issue here. The issue is where it comes from. It can be political- I don't like that it's foreign. I don't think freedom of speech means letting known foreign propaganda run hog wild on your platforms and control your information.

Re: China's state media buys Meta ads pushing Russia's line on war

#164

> Many of the ads, which are mostly clips of CGTN newscasts, sprinkle in pro-Russia, anti-NATO talking points and downplay Russia's actions in launching an unprovoked invasion of its neighbor. So what exactly did they say?

I don’t know about the ads, but here are their state media reports: They peddle Russia’s claim that US has bioweapons in Ukraine: https://www.newsweek.com/china-peddles-russias-claim-that-us... And here’s CGTN’s article on “biolabs” in Ukraine, citing Russia media outlets and officials: https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202203/1254330.shtml Edit: As pointed out by a commenter, the above article is from GlobalTimes, not…

>And here’s CGTN’s article on “biolabs” in Ukraine, citing Russia media outlets and official

There are biolabs in the Ukraine, as confirmed by Nuland in the Senate hearings. Whether they have bio-weapons or medical research, who knows, but you can perhaps understand that the Russians might be concerned?

What's really amazing about this story that only days ago it was painted as a Q-anon theory. Turns out it was real. We are neck deep in propaganda from all directions, but most people think it's only coming from the Russian side.

Re: China's state media buys Meta ads pushing Russia's line on war

#165
post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing in the video, but see somebameforme’s post ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30615313 ). No need for hasty accusations of spreading misinformation.

You are linking some links that don't imply what you imply. Yes, there are biolabs, and yes, some of them are Army-affiliated because COVID happened in the army, and yes, UA Army works with DoD. But there is no connection whatsoever there with the "US-made bioweapons" or even "bioweapons" in general so basically you are just promoting conspiracy.

I did not make any statements about existence of bioweapons.

You said “There is nothing in the video saying the biolabs belong to the US, stop spreading conspiracy misinformation.”

I pointed out that there is in fact US DoD funded research in Ukrainian bio labs.

I have no idea if they are making bioweapons. I can’t prove that they are, you can’t prove that they aren’t. But I do know that Victoria Nuland stated in that twitter video that whatever they got in those labs can be used as bioweapons, so on that point I think it’s an argument of semantics.

Re: China's state media buys Meta ads pushing Russia's line on war

#166
post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The answer is simply the first paragraph of [1]: > The U.S. Department of Defense’s Biological Threat Reduction Program collaborates with partner countries to counter the threat of outbreaks (deliberate, accidental, or natural) of the world’s most dangerous infectious diseases. The program accomplishes its bio-threat reduction mission through development of a bio-risk management culture; international research partne…

> The Biological Threat Reduction Program’s priorities in Ukraine are to consolidate and secure pathogens and toxins of security concern Where would these pathogens and toxins that need to be secured be coming from?

Everywhere else? The environment, geopolitical opponents.

Bioweapons defense is pretty fuzzy, as until recently you generally had to study a strain for a long amount of time to develop and test an effective vaccine. Which means you have to have a representative strain. Which means you either need to get one... or create your best guess.

All while the environment and/or your adversary are doing god knows what out of your sight.

Miracles like a vaccine-in-a-year don't just happen. They build on decades of research and preparedness.

Re: China's state media buys Meta ads pushing Russia's line on war

#168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t know, didn’t he say that all Americans have been tested for COVID-19 on a national TV advertisement? I’m absolutely certain that that claim wasn’t fact checked.

I, for one, have never taken a covid test.

Well, proof by counter example it is.

Re: China's state media buys Meta ads pushing Russia's line on war

#169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you also think the US army should stop running recruitment ads targeting teens? What about BP advertisements which are really just to get political support? What is political propaganda is a very… political question.

> What is political propaganda is a very… political question. Good thing that's not the issue here. The issue is where it comes from. It can be political- I don't like that it's foreign. I don't think freedom of speech means letting known foreign propaganda run hog wild on your platforms and control your information.

This thread was about any political propaganda on Facebook, but if you want to narrow down the discussion...

Some of us are old enough to remember when the US Intelligence community lied through NYTimes and NPR to drag us into the Iraq war. (Also the first Golf war. Also the Vietnam war.)

If you only care about foreign propaganda you’re still going to have a lot of evil done. And given that the US is the worlds last super power our own internal propaganda machine is pretty important.

Re: China's state media buys Meta ads pushing Russia's line on war

#170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How so? If it leaked from a lab, it is almost certainly from the Wuhan lab. The Wuhan lab was a joint French-Chinese operation. Before COVID-19, EcoHealth (an organization with ties to the Wuhan lab) applied for a grant from DARPA to perform gain-of-function-esque research on COVID[1]. DARPA denied the application. [1] https://theintercept.com/2021/09/23/coronavirus-research-gra...

From [1]: Other scientists contacted by The Intercept noted that there is published evidence that the Wuhan Institute of Virology was already engaged in some of the genetic engineering work described in the proposal and that viruses designed in North Carolina could easily be used in China. “The mail is filled with little envelopes with plasmid dried on to filter paper that scientists routinely send each other,” said…

> the Wuhan Institute of Virology was already engaged in some of the genetic engineering work described in the proposal

Sure, but that doesn't point to America it points to China.

> “The mail is filled with little envelopes with plasmid dried on to filter paper that scientists routinely send each other,”

It seems unlikely the leak happened at the Wuhan post office, but even if it did, how does imply American incompetence?

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