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China sows disinformation on Hong Kong using porn accounts on Twitter

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Re: China sows disinformation on Hong Kong using porn accounts on Twitter

#41

Post by PavlovsCat »

alfromspace wrote: post #19
s_Hogg wrote: post #9

I've seen a few of these, they appear in the replies to threads created by BBC journos saying things like (in translation): "support the central government" These accounts were pretty perplexing until this article spelled out what should have been obvious to me.

Who's being convinced by statements like that?

Such statements are not in isolation though. Violence and murder come first, then come fear and obedience, and then it's up to the obedient to find rationalizations for whatever words they get fed, or keep their mind off what doesn't make sense. A single such statement doesn't put you in line, but if you already are in line, then it's just one of the thousands of little bricks that keep you in line, and your brain on autopilot.

Why realize you've been fooled and exploited by people who don't really care about you, have excused their crimes, and then feel shitty because you don't dare to oppose them -- when you can just project all that on those who do oppose them? Then not seeing a silly and cheap slogan as silly and cheap becomes just another test of obedience, to excel at and be proud of. The Naked Emperor isn't just a story, it happens all the time. Identification with aggressors and projection of their bad qualities on their victims and those who oppose them is very common, or as Arno Gruen wrote, "the ubiquity of this phenomenon determines the course of human history".

https://www.reddit.com/r/FreeHongKongNow/comments/cya5z9/bas...

Who with a pulse would buy that? Those who are afraid of the responsibilities that come with not buying it. The continued violence is the lifeblood, not the propaganda; minus the movement, it all seems very banal and ridiculous, like Eichmann on trial.

Likewise, who would be so silly to think a downvote is an argument? Yet it's religiously done, and I wouldn't be suprised if to some people something being greyed out signals that it is not an okay opinion to have. Done consistently, it helps. It still needs to violence and the lies, the destruction of facts, but it's a useful addition to them.

Re: China sows disinformation on Hong Kong using porn accounts on Twitter

#42

Post by ackbar03 »

totaldude87 wrote: post #4

With all that happening in Hong Kong, i wonder why UK and US are not at all involved?

Maybe they realized the 'America fuck yeah' movement is over and they aren't the global police. No but jokes aside I think it has some parallels with decreasing interference in middle east and in general. I don't really follow these things so I could be wrong

Re: China sows disinformation on Hong Kong using porn accounts on Twitter

#44

Post by crispyambulance »

alfromspace wrote: post #19
s_Hogg wrote: post #9

I've seen a few of these, they appear in the replies to threads created by BBC journos saying things like (in translation): "support the central government" These accounts were pretty perplexing until this article spelled out what should have been obvious to me.

Who's being convinced by statements like that?

    > Who's being convinced by statements like that?
I wonder that a lot.

Perhaps, "convince" is the wrong verb to use for targets of disinformation campaigns?

The fact is "enough" people are susceptible to this stuff. It is worth doing because, sadly, critical thinking is rapidly becoming an educational luxury reserved for the elite. I don't know where all this will end up, but it's going to be ugly.

Re: China sows disinformation on Hong Kong using porn accounts on Twitter

#45

Post by jhanschoo »

jswizzy wrote: post #8
totaldude87 wrote: post #4

With all that happening in Hong Kong, i wonder why UK and US are not at all involved?

The UK downsized their Navy so much that they cannot even keep their oil tankers safe from Iran.

In all fairness, the UK no longer has the economy of a maritime empire to fund a navy that projects power.

Re: China sows disinformation on Hong Kong using porn accounts on Twitter

#46

Post by Leary »

totaldude87 wrote: post #4

With all that happening in Hong Kong, i wonder why UK and US are not at all involved?

Mature democracies like the US and UK have what is called soft power, by demonstrate how effective their democracies are at home they can influence the people in Hong Kong without directly conducting disinformation

Re: China sows disinformation on Hong Kong using porn accounts on Twitter

#47

Post by b_tterc_p »

dirtyid wrote: post #21

Full report: https://www.aspi.org.au/report/tweeting-through-great-firewa... >Researchers from the International Cyber Policy Centre (ICPC) at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute have conducted a preliminary analysis of the dataset. Our research indicates that the information operation targeted at the protests appears to have been a relatively small and hastily assembled operation rather than a sophisticated in…

This jumped out at me too. It’s pretty garbage, but it may be that garbage works

Re: China sows disinformation on Hong Kong using porn accounts on Twitter

#48

Post by b_tterc_p »

simias wrote: post #11
FreeHugs wrote: post #2

I don't understand it. So there are bots that have been posting "porn" for a bunch of years. And now they post political messages. How does that influence anybody? Who subscribes to porn bots? I would have thought only other porn bots follow porn bots? Can somebody link to an example of such a bot?

>Who subscribes to porn bots? I would have thought only other porn bots follow porn bots? Clearly if they exist they must have some marginal use. It's like saying "who falls for nigerian prince scams?" or "who is influenced by ads?". Clearly some people are, otherwise they wouldn't be quite as popular. I'm sure some real people follow porn bots in order to... see porn. As for the influence I think in isolation it's p…

Well they’re clearly being marketed as having actual use. Whether it’s true... could go either way

Re: China sows disinformation on Hong Kong using porn accounts on Twitter

#49

Post by tossAfterUsing »

taneq wrote: post #18
lallysingh wrote: post #3

Sounds like a classic lowest-bidder government contractor situation. "Sure, we have 100,000 accounts, and we'll charge 1.25 RMB per tweet per account." "Fantastic! You get the contract!" "Oh shit we need to find 100,000 accounts fast and cheap."

"I met this girl on the internet, she said she'd do anything for 1.25 RMB. Anything? Really?! ...So I got her to post tweets supporting the Chinese government."

It's china... the rates are actually less than half that (5 Jiao, where 10Jiao = 1Yuan)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/50_Cent_Party

here's some images for folks who like pictures: http://www.chinatoday.com/fin/mon/

Re: China sows disinformation on Hong Kong using porn accounts on Twitter

#50

Post by dirtyid »

b_tterc_p wrote: post #47
dirtyid wrote: post #21

Full report: https://www.aspi.org.au/report/tweeting-through-great-firewa... >Researchers from the International Cyber Policy Centre (ICPC) at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute have conducted a preliminary analysis of the dataset. Our research indicates that the information operation targeted at the protests appears to have been a relatively small and hastily assembled operation rather than a sophisticated in…

This jumped out at me too. It’s pretty garbage, but it may be that garbage works

The data set relevant to HK comprised of 112 accounts and 1600 tweets, only significantly active during mid June to mid July before activity stopped.

https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/ad-aspi/2019-09/chiT...?

Very anemic effort, but I think Twitter also proactively suspended 200,000 accounts as well. The operation probably pivoted following the crackdown. Still it's a little difficult reconciling how low effort this is with the Chinese influence everywhere narrative.

>The ICPC’s preliminary research indicates that the information operation targeting the Hong Kong protests, as reflected in this dataset, was relatively small hastily constructed, and relatively unsophisticated. This suggests that the operation, which Twitter has identified as linked to state-backed actors, is likely to have been a rapid response to the unanticipated size and power of the Hong Kong protests rather than a campaign planned well in advance. The unsophisticated nature of the campaign suggests a crude understanding of information operations and rudimentary tradecraft that is a long way from the skill level demonstrated by other state actors. This may be because the campaigns were outsourced to a contractor, or may reflect a lack of familiarity on the part of Chinese state-backed actors when it comes to information operations on open social media platforms such as Twitter, as opposed to the highly proficient levels of control demonstrated by the Chinese government over heavily censored platforms such as WeChat or Weibo.

I'm really curious how Twitter attributed the campaign was state backed, something Facebook and Google did not claim. Were these accounts transparently VPNing from the mainland or was there something more sophisticated happening.

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