Could it be that they are also active on Hacker News?
Read ALL comments in this thread and you will get the correct answer... :-)
How a fake network pushes pro-China propaganda
31–40 of 159 posts
Re: How a fake network pushes pro-China propaganda
#32Re: How a fake network pushes pro-China propaganda
#33FYI for those skeptical about pro-China propaganda online: Chinese channel with fake videos about how there is not really a genocide going on in Xinjiang: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5hykSm2o7oRpOyFrMYjeBg This girl is actually responding to a video exposing these ridiculous videos, trying to make the argument that the criticism is actually anti-China propaganda: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYUmBDJPX6k Rand…
Remember when the pushed those "criminals"-confession videos? So hyper-creepy. Like here western media are a thousand people confessing to crimes at gunpoint, that proofs that all we do is okay.
Not a single mention of that episode in all of western media. A flag of truth, hammered into the no-mans land of the western culture wars. Like seeds of a pomergrenade, we shall identify cringy propaganda by the slogans shoved into it ;)
Re: How a fake network pushes pro-China propaganda
#34Now the question is are most of the comments on this thread examples or are they the social conditioned response of Chinese citizens abroad showing the flag. It can get pretty creepy how aggressive students - for example - get supporting their government. That flash mob behavior isn't as effective as the Russian's conflict stoking troll farms, but man does it drown out conversation, and god help you if you run into i…
Yeah I remember I had a colleague, a Chinese student, very nice person, we were going along nicely, until one day I mentioned the Dalai Lama, and he exploded. It seems like the brainwashing was very successful - he believed that the DL was a monster, killer, some demonic being aiming at the destruction of China and so on. I couldn't believe my ears. This person seemed otherwise completely normal.
Re: How a fake network pushes pro-China propaganda
#35"Yellow Peril" is trendy.
Re: How a fake network pushes pro-China propaganda
#36[flagged]
These are the two comments below yours: https://i.imgur.com/o8c9ZPm.png While most efforts by the Chinese government to distort and degrade online communications have been focused domestically: https://www.propublica.org/article/leaked-documents-show-how... There is evidence they are starting to turn their guns outward: https://www.cfr.org/blog/chinas-internet-trolls-go-global But there is an uncomfortable truth behi…
The glass heart citizens have no choice. They participate or grandpa and grandma still living in the mainland get it.
Re: How a fake network pushes pro-China propaganda
#37Interesting, didnt know so many here are allergic to negative mentions of china, reacting with bbc flaming. Like cmon its just a dictatorship, accept it.
BBC is basically a UK foreign policy tool, not some saviour of democracy...
no one assumed that? The point is everyone can say whatever that person wants, including ANY journalists. Being afraid of some "government policy" is a paranoia coming from countries where the first point does not apply, projecting their own fears to others
Re: How a fake network pushes pro-China propaganda
#38[flagged]
These are the two comments below yours: https://i.imgur.com/o8c9ZPm.png While most efforts by the Chinese government to distort and degrade online communications have been focused domestically: https://www.propublica.org/article/leaked-documents-show-how... There is evidence they are starting to turn their guns outward: https://www.cfr.org/blog/chinas-internet-trolls-go-global But there is an uncomfortable truth behi…
Yes, and this is something to worry about, not some small network.
Recently China said they would nuke Japan time after time if they decide to protect Taiwan against Chinese invasion. I'm afraid many ordinary Chinese citizens would be in favor of this decision because they simply believe their government.
Re: How a fake network pushes pro-China propaganda
#39Now the question is are most of the comments on this thread examples or are they the social conditioned response of Chinese citizens abroad showing the flag. It can get pretty creepy how aggressive students - for example - get supporting their government. That flash mob behavior isn't as effective as the Russian's conflict stoking troll farms, but man does it drown out conversation, and god help you if you run into i…
I recall the online version of our student newspaper once wrote an article with some fairly generic criticisms of China's government having a very interesting comments section that week
(the guy who wrote the article went on to be a journalist for the FT)
Then I recall reading forums full of British supposedly mature adults reacting with similarly preposterous rage to a non-story about an Oxford college taking down a picture of the Queen, and I'm absolutely certain the Royal Family weren't paying them...
Pretty sure that China's actual paid propagandists are doing the difficult job of changing the focus of the attack when evidence of government shortcomings surfaces on Chinese message boards, not hanging around on niche English language forums which categorise politics as "off topic" in case California-based computer programmers' views of China aren't universally positive (or for that matter bombarding student publications of with the sort of outraged anonymous comments that look... actually pretty similar in tone to the letters to the editor by named undergraduates)
Re: How a fake network pushes pro-China propaganda
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
I suspect there are several PR firms active on HN. Some topics were suddenly very popular out of nowhere and criticising it was getting you a wall of downvote. Then it stopped.
More than any other tech company, negative things about Apple will get you quickly down voted into oblivion. Hard to know if its just rabid fanboys, or PR firms. Unfortunately, HN isn't interested in naming and shaming companies caught astroturfing and they don't like us to speculate. Its too bad because I would consider that information a huge kindness to humanity.
As someone who used to work in a reputation management firm, this is considered industry practice regarding public engagement.
Chances are keywords of interest are monitored on common social media, after applying sentiment analysis, an analyst specialising in Public engagement is assigned to engage with the public in order to shape the narrative.