Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 25 of 33
  1. #1
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    Chiang Mai
    Posts
    48,094

    China Information Warfare and Media Influence Sow Division in Thailand

    By the time video scenes of a brutal prison riot in Ecuador earlier this year reached Asia, the video’s caption had been changed and read, “American Blacks and Whites in California Killing Chinese,” and the clip went viral.


    Disinformation like that video, doctored to promote anti-U.S. hatred, is growing in Thailand, media researchers said.


    Chinese narratives, whether fake news or state-sponsored propaganda, are gradually seeping into Thai media, academia, and political and business circles, and people from different sectors in Thailand are expressing concern over the phenomenon, experts said.


    In the violent video, an Asian man is seen lying on the ground covered in blood and with his face wrenched in pain. Dozens of Spanish-speaking men attack him with bats and sticks, beating him in broad daylight.


    No source is cited in the video, which was described in the post as a hate crime against Asians in America, and went viral on social media platforms. Since mid-April, it has been shared widely in Southeast Asian chat groups and on Taiwanese and Chinese social media and instant messaging apps.


    The common theme on all the comment threads was “What’s Wrong with the United States?”


    After reviewing messages circulating in Chinese WeChat groups; chat groups on Line, the instant message app popular in Asia; and Facebook groups, a reporter for Radio Free Asia, a sister entity of BenarNews, found that the video had targeted audiences in China, Taiwan and Southeast Asia with inflammatory anti-U.S. captions.


    “America is out of order! In California, U.S.A., blacks and whites are killing Chinese. Forward this video all over China!” read one.


    “A Chinese lost his life meaninglessly, but our country is still trying to please the U.S. for favors,” said another.


    “Time for Chinese in the U.S. to wake up. Escape from America as soon as possible. Return to China or emigrate to a Southeast Asian country – the sooner, the better,” said yet another.


    These doctored messages and graphic videos have stirred up significant reactions in the Chinese community in Thailand and also translated into the Thai language.


    “Facebook groups and Line are the most popular sources of information in Thailand, especially for the older generations,” said Teeranai Charuvastra, a Bangkok-based journalist and board member of the Thai Journalists Association.


    Over the past year, distorted “anti-America” and “Hate Americans” videos have become common in Thailand, he said, noting that while sophisticated younger-generation audiences were unlikely to buy stories like these, older people are more susceptible to media manipulation.




    From Russia to Southeast Asia via China


    After investigating the source of this video and its paths of transmission, RFA found that what the video had captured was a prison riot in Ecuador on Feb. 23, and it had been uploaded to Twitter by an official of the Ecuadorian Ministry of Justice.


    On March 14, the video was shared on Russian instant messaging software and on Telegram. By late April, the video had surfaced on instant messaging software and social media in China, Taiwan and Southeast Asia.


    The video also appeared on Reddit, a U.S. forum, where it was mistakenly described as a violent incident in Los Angeles. However, the account that uploaded the video has since been deleted.


    Lilly Lee, an independent researcher who has been following Chinese Communist Party (CCP) information warfare, pointed out that the dissemination of distorted information fits two main themes of recent CCP information warfare.


    China seeks to fortify the narrative that the Chinese governing model is better than that of Western democracies during the pandemic, and it works to manipulate recent hate crime incidents against Asians in America – widely covered in the U.S. media – to promote China as the power best suited to maintain world order.


    “China wants to create a narrative that China, as the big brother, will protect Chinese people and all ethnic Chinese populations,” Lee said.


    In CCP information warfare, whether the message is to smear the U.S. as a chaotic country or to praise China, all push a broader narrative that serves the party: “Democracy is not a good way to rule the people in a country,” she said.


    Meanwhile, a September 2020 report by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) said: “Beijing uses large numbers of fake social media accounts to push its messages. It has increasingly relied on the types of trolls and bots Russia has utilized. Chinese diplomats amplify spin and outright false messages, and big Chinese state media outlets push the government’s stories.”


    Some Chinese ‘punches are landing’


    And in March, the most famous of the aggressive official Twitter accounts of China’s “Wolf Warrior” diplomats – that of foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian – tweeted a conspiracy theory suggesting that the coronavirus originated in the U.S. Zhao also stirred controversy in late 2020 when he shared a fake image of an Australian soldier killing an Afghan child.


    “Chinese disinformation still seems more simplistic than Russia’s. Chinese fake social media accounts spreading disinformation about COVID-19 often appear shoddier than Russian ones and thus easier to expose,” the CFR report said.


    “Still, some of Beijing’s disinformation punches are landing,” it noted.


    Chinese officials did not respond to request for comment on the Thai fake news campaign.


    Foreign ministry spokespersons have responded to previous accusations that China spreads disinformation by saying the country is a victim of fake news, not a perpetrator, and accusing the platforms of having double standards by not blocking unfavorable news reports about China. China blocks Twitter and Facebook but its official media and diplomats use the platforms to spread Chinese views and combat critics.


    The same Ecuador prison riot video that barely caused a ripple in Taiwan ignited passions in Thailand, however, where it went viral.


    Thailand became fertile ground for the disinformation video because conspiracy theories about the U.S. were already circulating widely since a Thai student movement erupted after the dissolution in February 2020 of the Future Forward Party. The destruction of the new progressive political party favored by younger Thais triggered the largest wave of pro-democracy protests in Thailand since 2014.


    Social media disinformation campaigns said the Thai students were incited by Washington, while more outlandish stories alleged Western-led collusion between the Thai student movement and the 2019-20 Hong Kong pro-democracy movement, whose leading activists were branded Western puppets by China’s online troll army.


    In August 2019, Twitter announced it had banned 936 accounts originating from within China that “were deliberately and specifically attempting to sow political discord in Hong Kong, including undermining the legitimacy and political positions of the protest movement on the ground.”


    The U.S. tech giant said it made the decision based on “reliable evidence to support that this is a coordinated state-backed operation.” The 936 frozen accounts followed the proactive suspension of “a larger, spammy network of approximately 200,000 accounts,” it added.


    Charuvastra said “the most unfortunate thing is that these infowars are very distracting.


    “The danger of this misinformation and disinformation is that they scandalized the activists, who in turn lost their own credibility and the general public’s trust in the movement,” Charuvastra said.


    Beyond the fake news campaigns, analysts in Thailand are also concerned about the longer game China is playing to influence public opinion: the expansion of CCP-owned media in Thailand.


    Chinese official media are required to demonstrate strict loyalty to the CCP and to Chinese President Xi Jinping. In the 2021 World Press Freedom Index released by Reporters Without Borders, a press-freedom watchdog, China ranked near the bottom in the world, above only Turkmenistan, North Korea and Eritrea, while the number of journalists detained in China is the largest in the world.


    In 2015, the Chinese government made “media and information cooperation” with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) an essential part of the One Belt, One Road initiative, Xi’s signature global infrastructure program to support trade with China.


    In the following years, through mergers and the acquisition of Thai media outlets or through signing MOUs, China began providing free content to TV stations in Thailand from party-controlled outlets Xinhua News Agency and China Central Television (CCTV).


    Conspiracy theories as straight news


    By 2020, Thai media fell under Beijing's influence when covering reports regarding the source of the COVID-19 pandemic, in at least one case running a conspiracy theory pushed by CCTV’s global arm, CGTN.


    “Some Thai media just put the conspiracy theory generated by the Chinese state media as news reports. For example, ‘Bombshell Report: The Coronavirus May Have Come from American Soldiers.’ Such so-called news reports did not verify the news sources. They also ignored the fact that the source of information came from Chinese authority controlled state-run media,” Charuvastra said.


    James Gomez, director of the Thai think tank Asia Center, said that compared with Taiwan and Japan, where citizens are on high alert against disinformation and misinformation from foreign powers, in Thailand, the public lacks the ability to identify information from China, while the government does nothing to counter Chinese public opinion influence efforts.


    “Thai government agencies and elites are closely aligned with China in order to gain economic, military, or political benefits,” Gomez said.


    A poll by Japan’s Nikkei Asia earlier this year found that when asked how they would choose between the U.S. and China, the Thai people showed a 50-50 split.


    “To a certain degree, this also reflects the principle of equilibrium that Thailand has historically practiced in its foreign policy when dealing with superpowers,” said Poowin Bunyavejchewin, a senior researcher at the Institute of East Asian Studies at Thammasat University.


    In contrast to elites, many citizens in the Nikkei survey expressed concern about China’s growing influence in Southeast Asia and in Thailand, about the quality of the planned high-speed rail line, about a possible debt trap and about China’s vaccine diplomacy.


    Gomez said he is concerned that diversified voices are being muffled in Thailand and fears this will take a toll on a civil society already under pressure from authoritarian military leaders.


    “I think if the trend continues, there will be no room left for freedom of expression in Thai society,” Gomez said.


    China’s Information Warfare and Media Influence Sow Division in Thailand — BenarNews

  2. #2
    Thailand Expat
    Join Date
    Feb 2006
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    38,456
    “What’s Wrong with the United States?”
    Damn good question.

  3. #3
    Thailand Expat Saint Willy's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2019
    Last Online
    30-04-2022 @ 02:44 AM
    Posts
    11,204
    Quote Originally Posted by misskit View Post
    noting that while sophisticated younger-generation audiences were unlikely to buy stories like these, older people are more susceptible to media manipulation.
    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    Damn good question.
    they’ve got you bang to rights
    ....

  4. #4
    Thailand Expat helge's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    11,653
    Quote Originally Posted by misskit View Post
    “China wants to create a narrative that China, as the big brother, will protect Chinese people and all ethnic Chinese populations,” Lee said.
    ......

  5. #5
    Thailand Expat Saint Willy's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2019
    Last Online
    30-04-2022 @ 02:44 AM
    Posts
    11,204
    Surprised that isnt all over these thread like a bad rash.

  6. #6
    Thailand Expat helge's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    11,653
    Didn't we have a thread about asians being targeted ?

  7. #7
    Thailand Expat
    Join Date
    Feb 2006
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    38,456
    Propaganda is a bit like torture. It's only OK if We do it.

  8. #8
    Member

    Join Date
    Jan 2020
    Last Online
    01-08-2023 @ 11:33 PM
    Posts
    510
    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    Propaganda is a bit like torture. It's only OK if We do it.
    Not sure if propaganda and disinformation campaigns are really one and the same though.

  9. #9
    Thailand Expat
    panama hat's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Last Online
    21-10-2023 @ 08:08 AM
    Location
    Way, Way South of the border now - thank God!
    Posts
    32,680
    Quote Originally Posted by TTraveler View Post
    Not sure if propaganda and disinformation campaigns are really one and the same though.
    They're not.

    Propaganda is blaring the political agenda which isn't in and by itself untrue.

    Disinformation, by definition, is untruths/lies


    China practices both - as do others, it's just that the Chinese government (and Russian) have no (little) accountability to their population and in China's case actively blocks their people from freely available news which would/could contradict their leaders' disinformation campaigns.

    Whole legions of programmers and blogger are unleashed for this crap.


    Quote Originally Posted by misskit View Post
    Since mid-April, it has been shared widely in Southeast Asian chat groups and on Taiwanese and Chinese social media and instant messaging apps.
    As the article states, older Chinese/Asian people are more likely to believe the shit that comes from the Communist party echo chamber - my father-in-law has business in and lived in NZ, UK, AU, MY and SG . . . he fought the Communists in Malaysia and hates them with a passion. Yet now he has this Chinese/China fervour, thinking the west is terrible and anti-Asian etc...

    Before he was a man who was western when it suited him and Asian when it suited him . . . now he is pro-China (not pro-Communist, but because he sees China as his family's historical birthplace he sidesteps the Communist agenda.

    The number of videos which are so blatantly badly made and clearly wrong and fake is astounding.

    So yes, 'warfare media' is right.

  10. #10
    Thailand Expat tomcat's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    17,216
    Quote Originally Posted by panama hat View Post
    The number of videos which are so blatantly badly made and clearly wrong and fake is astounding
    ...so is the number of people who believe them...

  11. #11
    Member elche's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Last Online
    19-09-2021 @ 01:19 AM
    Posts
    974
    China and others like Russia have found the weak underbelly of the US, credulity, and their constitution, that allow freedom of speech, even if in undermines a country. A democracy is only as strong as its people. And right now the US has one major party, the Republicans, taking advantage of the ignorance and credulity of Americans with hate, propaganda, misinformation and lies to not just gain power but to undermine democracy completely, creating an autocracy in its place. If the Republicans take the Senate and House in 2024, and it appears to be the case, there is a very good chance that democracy will end in the US.

    Opinion | How Republicans Could Steal the 2024 Election - The New York Times

  12. #12
    Thailand Expat tomcat's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    17,216
    Quote Originally Posted by elche View Post
    If the Republicans take the Senate and House in 2024
    ...2022 is the nearest threat date...and many Republican states are working quickly to get their Jim Crow(II) laws in place to reduce the number of voters they don't like...

  13. #13
    Thailand Expat
    Join Date
    Feb 2006
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    38,456
    China does not actually need to resort to propaganda to point out the lies and hypocrisy of the West, the USA in particular. You only need read the News. Do you think this might give it's 'propaganda' a little more credence?


    I think a whole lot of dumb westerners still believe the world revolves around them. It doesn't. Neither does most of the Worlds population reside in Europe and Nth America, and neither does most of the Worlds growth come from these regions. So I'm afraid your sanctimonious lecturing from the bully pulpit is mainly just reaching your own choir.

  14. #14
    Thailand Expat tomcat's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    17,216
    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    China does not actually need to resort to propaganda to point out the lies and hypocrisy of the West, the USA in particular. You only need read the uncensored News.
    ...ftfy...

    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    I think a whole lot of dumb westerners still believe the world revolves around them.
    ...I suppose an even greater number of dumb Third Worlders think the same...funny how folks think...

  15. #15
    Thailand Expat
    Klondyke's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2014
    Last Online
    26-09-2021 @ 10:28 PM
    Posts
    10,105
    Quote Originally Posted by elche View Post
    If the Republicans take the Senate and House in 2024, and it appears to be the case, there is a very good chance that democracy will end in the US.
    Do you truly believe that with the one or with the other will be better democracy?

    Now only, exceptionally, because of the huge deception and lies of the Dem Party (nobody collects the lies as they were collected before?) many might take side with the other Party. And not that they like them but that they dislike the other, being angry that they were deceived at the elections...

  16. #16
    Thailand Expat
    panama hat's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Last Online
    21-10-2023 @ 08:08 AM
    Location
    Way, Way South of the border now - thank God!
    Posts
    32,680
    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    China does not actually need to resort to propaganda to point out the lies and hypocrisy of the West, the USA in particular.
    Correct - yet it does, nauseatingly repeating the same shit over and over, making up more shit over and over . . . the country is like Klongdick and OhNo on speed.

    As yourself - if it doesn't have to then why does it? US media organisations and others quite openly and legally criticise the US . . . the same cannot be said about China. Ask yourself why.

    Live in China?
    Live in the US?

    The answer is obvious to all but the hypocrites who laud the Communist murderous state but wouldn't live there and be subjected to their 'lwas'


    I get what you're saying, sabang . . . but absolving China from wrongdoings is ridiculous.


    As usual, though, check out the title of the thread. China. Thailand. A few posts in and you, klongdick, ohno and backspit have changed it into yet another US-bashing thread.

    Every
    single
    time

    Nicely done

  17. #17
    Member elche's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Last Online
    19-09-2021 @ 01:19 AM
    Posts
    974
    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    China does not actually need to resort to propaganda to point out the lies and hypocrisy of the West, the USA in particular.
    You mean the Republican Party which has become a cult and a threat to democracy, where conspiracy theories are the rule of the day and formal policy.


    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    You only need read the News.
    Fox News and NewsMax are not news outlets. They are Republican propaganda mills.

  18. #18
    Member elche's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Last Online
    19-09-2021 @ 01:19 AM
    Posts
    974
    Quote Originally Posted by Klondyke View Post
    Do you truly believe that with the one or with the other will be better democracy?
    The US is far from a perfect democracy. But the Republicans want to undermine what is left of it.

  19. #19
    Hangin' Around cyrille's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    Home
    Posts
    33,534
    Quote Originally Posted by panama hat View Post
    A few posts in and you, klongdick, ohno and backspit have changed it into yet another US-bashing thread

    Particularly impressive since two of those four haven't even posted on here yet.

  20. #20
    Thailand Expat
    panama hat's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Last Online
    21-10-2023 @ 08:08 AM
    Location
    Way, Way South of the border now - thank God!
    Posts
    32,680
    Quote Originally Posted by cyrille View Post
    Particularly impressive
    Thank you.

    It's a group thing . . . 'transference' is the key-word.

    One thinks 'Klongdick' and he is paired with 'OhNo'.

    One thinks 'Backspit' and he is paired with a 'village idiot'.

    In this particular case it seems OhNo has been recalled to the motherland for further education and Backspit is too thick to find it.

    See?

    (I refuse to give up on sabang)

  21. #21
    Thailand Expat
    Join Date
    Feb 2006
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    38,456
    Well here's a thought. Why don't you stick with your topic of interest PH- the lies and deceit of Vlad the Inhaler and the Emperors of Fu Manchu.
    And I'll stick with mine- the lies and deceit of wrinkly Uncle Sam, the big stick that he loves to wave about, and his harem of compliant piss boys.
    But they are not mutually exclusive. They love telling lies about each other too.

  22. #22
    Thailand Expat tomcat's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    17,216
    ...and then there's this Chinese businessman doing the same thing inside the US:

    Chinese businessman with links to Steve Bannon is driving force for a sprawling disinformation network, researchers say

    Guo Wengui, living in self-exile in New York City, is at the center of a digital web pushing election and covid falsehoods, according to Graphika research

    By Jeanne Whalen, Craig Timberg and Eva Dou (WaPo)
    May 17, 2021 at 7:00 p.m. GMT+7

    A sprawling online network tied to Chinese businessman Guo Wengui has become a potent platform for disinformation in the United States, attacking the safety of coronavirus vaccines, promoting false election-fraud claims and spreading baseless QAnon conspiracies, according to research published Monday by the network analysis company Graphika.

    The report, provided in advance to The Washington Post, details a network that Graphika says amplifies the views of Guo, a Chinese real estate developer whose association with former Trump White House adviser Stephen K. Bannon became a focus of news coverage last year after Bannon was arrested aboard Guo’s yacht on federal fraud charges.

    Graphika said the network includes media websites such as GTV, for which Guo last year , Graphika found.

    Graphika’s research sheds more light on Guo, a onetime billionaire real estate developer who, in addition to his relationship with Bannon, has drawn attention for the confusing mix of disinformation and invective he has broadcast since moving to the United States, including contradictory attacks on both the Chinese Communist Party and anti-CCP dissidents in the West.

    The Graphika report “is an important forensic analysis of the ways that rich and politically motivated people can manipulate social media,” said Joan Donovan, director of the Technology and Social Change Research Project at Harvard’s Shorenstein Center.

    Other analysts also have identified the network as boosting Guo-related media and aligned political messaging. Alethea Group, a firm that tracks disinformation and other online threats, said it had detected an effort in November to spread disinformation in Spanish.

    Lisa Kaplan, Alethea Group’s founder and chief executive, said the network’s fluency in American politics and ability to make use of other languages beyond English suggest it could remain a powerful asset.

    “These groups don’t just lie dormant after an election, they shift focus and morph topics to maintain their relevance so they can be activated to achieve the goals of those who control them,” she said.

    Graphika, which has conducted research on Internet use for a wide variety of organizations including Facebook and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, called Guo the “linchpin” of the network, though it stopped short of detailing his exact role. “He is the leading personality, appears to define goals and messaging, and is positioned as a wise leader who should be admired and followed,” the report says.

    Guo is the featured speaker in many of the videos and texts disseminated by the network, including some that have sought to undermine the scientific consensus about the causes and remedies of the coronavirus pandemic.

    In a video posted in April on GNews, a media website Guo has publicly suggested he helped establish, Guo calls vaccines against the coronavirus “fake” and “poison.”

    Images disseminated by the network on Instagram have portrayed coronavirus vaccines as grenades, bullets and handguns. Another meme that circulated on Instagram in January warned, “Don’t trust the vaccine, the medical industry is completely controlled by a special interest.”

    Daniel Podhaskie, a spokesman for Guo, denied Guo controlled content on GTV or GNews.

    “They are not platforms whose content is managed or directed by Mr. Guo or any single individual or company,” he said by email. “GTV is an online video sharing platform with posts mainly in Chinese Mandarin. Similar to Twitter and Facebook, the GTV video hosting platform allows users to create, upload, view, like/dislike, comment, and share videos … implying that Mr. Guo is responsible for everything that is posted on this platform is ludicrous.”

    “Mr. Guo posts his own videos on GTV and does not control or coordinate what subscribers or other GTV bloggers do with them,” he added.

    Information disseminated by the entities that Graphika defined as the network focuses primarily on attacking China’s political leadership, but the network also has played a loud, persistent and largely overlooked role in U.S. politics, including in fueling falsehoods — repeatedly rejected by investigators and courts — that widespread fraud marred the 2020 election.

    Graphika said its analysis found thousands of accounts apparently working together across social media platforms in a well-coordinated effort to push selected themes in a manner that amplifies their reach. Many of the accounts “appear to be run by real people but solely amplify Guo-related content,” Graphika said.

    People who describe themselves as Guo supporters in Chinese expatriate communities in the United States, Canada, Australia and other countries help translate and prepare the videos and memes that the network disseminates, Graphika researchers said.

    Dozens of corporate entities, media organizations and activist groups participate in the network, Graphika said, including Saraca Media Group Inc., a Delaware-registered company that is listed as the entity offering the GNews and GTV apps in Apple’s App Store. Saraca also owns Guo Media, an entity that agreed to pay Bannon an annual fee of $1 million for consulting services, according to a 2018 contract published by Axios.

    Asked whether Guo is a direct or beneficial owner of Saraca, GTV Media Group or the other companies identified by Graphika, Podhaskie said: “Mr. Guo does not own or have any employment, oversight or formal consulting/advisory relationship with any of these entities. He has served in an unpaid capacity, as GTV Media’s sponsor, and as an unpaid informal advisor and key host for content.”

    Podhaskie is listed as president and director of Saraca in a document filed in February with Delaware’s secretary of state. Podhaskie declined to comment on that.

    The Graphika report identifies videos posted online in which Guo claims a leading role in some operations, including an April 2020 clip of Guo speaking about .

    “We mainly accept investments from our friends,” Guo says in the video, which concludes with written instructions for investors to send the signed shareholder agreement to “Mr. Guo Wengui’s WhatsApp number.”

    Guo also refers to Bannon as a GTV board member in the video. Bannon didn’t respond to a request for comment, but in the past has called Guo “the toughest Chinese opponent the CCP has ever encountered.”

    Last year, GNews quoted Guo as saying, “Our GNews viewer and registration numbers grow by multiples every week. … The chance for our products to grow rapidly and make an enormous profit is boundless!”

    Teng Biao, a Chinese dissident and human rights scholar at Hunter College in New York, who was harassed at his New Jersey home for weeks last year by protesters he said were sent by Guo, said the Graphika research is particularly valuable in identifying the various companies and entities that appear to be working in tandem.

    “Guo and his media have played a very active role in spreading misinformation related to Chinese and American politics and society,” Teng said. In addition to circulating broadly in English, the material “has significantly polluted the public discussion on Chinese-language social media,” including the popular WeChat app, he added.

    The protests at Teng’s home began after Guo recorded videos encouraging his followers to “eliminate” roughly 20 people he deemed “traitors,” including Teng. Other dissidents named in the videos reported being targeted by similar protests that on one occasion turned violent, The Post previously reported.

    Asked by The Post about the protests last year, Guo appeared to confirm his involvement, though he denied any role in violence. “To be clear, I have never condoned any type of violence towards any individuals. Myself, the anti-CCP supporters, and the New Federal State of China movement are exercising our First Amendment right to expose and oppose those who support the CCP,” he said at the time, referring to a pro-democracy movement he created with Bannon with the stated aim of replacing CCP rule.

    Guo supporters who help produce and spread the network’s memes and videos are a combination of volunteers and paid workers who refer to themselves as “ants,” working for what Guo has called a movement of “whistleblowers” challenging Chinese government power, Graphika said. The researchers titled their report, “Ants in a Web: Deconstructing Guo Wengui’s Online ‘Whistleblower Movement.’ ”

    The “ants” appear to coordinate their work on chat apps, including Discord, WhatsApp and Telegram, and to post content across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other sites, Graphika said. The researchers found identical posts appearing almost simultaneously from different Facebook accounts, a sign of tight coordination. But the researchers came to believe this work was not “inauthentic,” a term meaning that those posting content are not expressing their own views — often a trigger for takedowns or other enforcement actions.

    Alethea Group’s analysis said accounts in one of the Discord channels tied to the network encouraged participants to post campaign-related content in Spanish. One message on Nov. 2, 2020, asked, “On the last day before the election, can we spread the truth … as much as possible in Spanish?"

    Alethea Group said users active in the network employed so-called “social listening tools” to monitor popular phrases and the performance of news articles — part of an effort to maximize their own reach. One of the Discord channels also contained instructions for creating fake Twitter accounts, and for spacing out tweets to avoid the platform’s automated detection technologies.

    Accounts said to be part of the network have faced sporadic sanctions by social media companies, including the closing of 150 Twitter accounts for “spam and platform manipulation” during the 2020 presidential election. Graphika found concerted efforts to sidestep platform rules by, for example, posting modified web addresses that would not face automatic bans by Facebook or Twitter.

    “Twitter’s top priority is keeping people safe, and we remain vigilant about coordinated activity on our service,” spokeswoman Katie Rosborough said. Facebook didn’t respond to a request for comment.

    The Guo supporters are organized into local action groups known as “Himalaya farms,” according to Graphika and Guo’s public statements. In a September 2020 video clip posted on GNews, Guo said the Himalaya Standing Committee oversees the network of farms. “If you name your organization after a Himalaya Farm without our approval, we will soon cut our ties with you,” he said.

    Graphika said the Guo-affiliated network became more involved in U.S. political activity in the run-up to the November election. On Sept. 25, , Graphika said.

    GNews also published many negative claims about Hunter Biden, including false allegations that he engaged in child sexual abuse.

    After the election, content across the network embraced President Donald Trump’s false election-fraud claims and the related #StoptheSteal hashtag, and promoted Trump’s plans for a Jan. 6 rally in Washington, Graphika found. During the rally and subsequent storming of the U.S. Capitol, GTV featured live streams of the action, which Guo supporters promoted on social media, along with material calling members of the mob “patriots.”

    Later, GNews and other wings of the network pushed false conspiracies that the violence was the work of antifa, Graphika found.

    Regarding the coronavirus pandemic, Graphika said the network has amplified the unsubstantiated claim that China purposely manufactured the virus as a bioweapon. Chinese scientist Li-Meng Yan, whose spreading of unproven claims about the origins of the novel coronavirus sparked a pitched backlash among American medical researchers last year, is regularly featured in content and has openly affiliated herself with two nonprofits that Guo announced he was founding in 2018.

    Posts on the network have pushed the use of the unproven treatment hydroxychloroquine to fight covid-19 — GNews published comments from Guo saying he himself has taken the drug — and repeatedly attacked the safety of coronavirus vaccines.

    One video released on GNews in April by a Himalaya farm in Toronto said Chinese authorities “quickly developed and exported another biochemical virus in the form of a vaccine.” The video included images of the AstraZeneca vaccine and clips of Guo saying “How many people will die? The vaccine is a real poison,” and “The vaccines are all fake. … There is no vaccine, never ever. Because it is the bioweapon.”

    Graphika said the network also has “continuously amplified QAnon-aligned content,” including by posting an “extensive collection” of QAnon videos on GTV.

    “Mr. Guo does not work with, know, or seek guidance from QAnon,” Podhaskie said.

    Graphika said the network also includes the Rule of Law Foundation and the Rule of Law Society — two nonprofits that Guo said he was launching in 2018. Bannon was to lead the Rule of Law Society, which would be backed by a $100 million donation from Guo, the two men said at a news conference at the time.

    On their websites, the Rule of Law groups say they collect donations to provide support to people who have run afoul of Chinese authorities. Graphika found that donations to the groups were in some cases mandatory before a Guo supporter could join a Himalaya farm.

    Podhaskie said: “Perhaps the above requirement, if true, are attempts to filter out potential CCP agents from legitimate supporters.”
    Last edited by tomcat; 18-05-2021 at 03:52 PM.
    Majestically enthroned amid the vulgar herd

  23. #23
    Thailand Expat
    Join Date
    Feb 2006
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    38,456
    Interesting TC- but given that he's a Chinese dissident, living in exile in the US, and using his media assets to spew lies and disinformation about China, wouldn't that make him a friend of yours? Well, either that or he is 'telling the truth' about nasty China-surely. You have exposed one of your propaganda assets!

  24. #24
    Thailand Expat tomcat's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    17,216
    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    Interesting
    ...agree...just another example of the Yellow Peril at work...

  25. #25
    Thailand Expat
    Join Date
    Feb 2006
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    38,456
    If a Perilous Yellow lies for us, is he still Yellow Peril? Or is he now a noble oriental gentleman? All very confusing.

Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •