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Comment by fludlight | Hacker News Reader

How is this news? Every global and regional power does this sort of thing to further their economic and political interests. They do it against both friend and foe. They've been doing it since newspapers first became popular.

And there's nothing wrong with it. Sure it leaves a bad taste in your mouth, but Facebook posts filled with misinformation, sponsored by foreign agents disguised as your countrymen are vastly preferable to the alternatives which have historically included sponsored coups, astroturfed bloody protests, economically crippling sanctions, and assassinations.

[1] China, Russia, the US, the UK, Israel, KSA, India, Germany, etc. Yes, even Germany which many people on HN seem to think miraculously stopped spying in 1989 and ascended to ethical heaven. I wouldn't be surprised if Canada used it during the Keystone pipeline debate.

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It's news because China runs by far the largest overseas propaganda campaign, spending over $10bn per year on it. They spend 15x more than the US does on overseas propaganda. What's worrisome is not the fact that they do it, but the sheer scale of their program.

China also influences Hollywood movies. Their censors will ban films with plots that are the least bit critical of the PRC. China is a large percentage of global cinema revenues so filmmakers either forgo a large percentage of their potential revenue or avoid criticizing China. Guess which choice they generally pick.

Where did you get that digit?

$1.6B figure was leaked on the state budget in 2009

$10bn estimate from 2015 https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/china/2015-06-16/chi...

It is news the same way you get frequent news about evil corporations or brutal police, or SF housing bubble. I didn’t see any one arguing those aren’t news.

I don’t feel outrageous at this at all. The US have arguably done something similar for as long as anyone can remember. It is however a reminder the world we are living in. China is a rising super power and they have been flexing their muscle in the global scale and you may be targeted more often than you think.

The next time you assure yourself you’re immune to corporate speak, informercial, propaganda from the left or the right, add foreign powers to the list.

It's also newsworthy that China is spreading propaganda via Facebook. They are afraid of its influence to their population, and use it to their advantage elsewhere.

So be glad of the existence of all the propaganda you're getting daily, because it is still up to you to filter and not the government to do it for you.

> And there's nothing wrong with it. Sure it leaves a bad taste in your mouth, but Facebook posts filled with misinformation, sponsored by foreign agents disguised as your countrymen are vastly preferable to the alternatives which have historically included sponsored coups, astroturfed bloody protests, economically crippling sanctions, and assassinations.

Do you think China (or Russia or another foreign country) have never engaged in any of the things you mentioned? And the propaganda they are spreading today aren't preluded to something more evil tomorrow?

> How is this news?

It isn't news. It's propaganda. NYTimes and WaPo have been spearheading a political/propaganda campaign against social media ( fb, reddit, youtube, etc ) to reign them in. The last thing the nytimes wants is competition to the propaganda arena.

Traditional media has been trying to get social media to fall in line for nearly a decade. The last election put a sense on urgency in the establishment and the media mouthpieces they control. Also it helps to scapegoat russia, china, etc for how ineffective the media was last election in shaping the narrative.

> It isn't news. It's propaganda. NYTimes and WaPo have been spearheading a political/propaganda campaign against social media ( fb, reddit, youtube, etc ) to reign them in. Traditional media has been trying to get social media to fall in line for nearly a decade.

This gives these media companies way too much credit. If they had this much self-awareness and intelligence they wouldn't have been caught out by the rise of social media in the first place.

"Traditional media" has had hundreds of years to get it's business model down and comfortably integrated into society, so of course new media is having the lion's share of the problems which is being reported on. This should all be totally obvious and expected - it's not really a massive conspiracy - it's innovative business models forcing new problems into the open. Facebook, YouTube and Twitter have been in the public consciousness for less than 15 years.

> This gives these media companies way too much credit.

I'm not giving it any credit.

> If they had this much self-awareness and intelligence they wouldn't have been caught out by the rise of social media in the first place.

That would be giving it too much credit.

Traditional media is just protecting its own turf. Or it is trying to.

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