TikTok pushing Chinese propaganda to millions of users in Europe: analysis | Hacker News Reader

TikTok pushing Chinese propaganda to millions of users in Europe: analysis

nypost.com

52 pointsthunderbong44 comments

Pull the goddamn plug of all these leeches feeding off our sociocultural capital. Getting Neuland[1] vibes again.

[1] Angela Merkel infamously said in 2013 (!) that the internet is uncharted territory ("Neuland") for "all of us".

Which was exactly during the time she was being spied by US agencies[1]

[1] https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/us-security-agency-spie...

I wonder how many times the allied intelligence services found the opportunity to pwn each other, and did so rather than patching what they found.

It's not surprising to find that half the comments in this thread are about what other countries are doing or have done. I find it less than genuine, certainly those should be submitted as separate posts, and can be debated there on their own merits, as should this one.

It's a boilerplate response for pro-China comments.

Whataboutism is the standard SOP to derail conversations, esp. when related to international politics.

Other tactics include injecting hot button issues like race, gender, or TSLA into topics -- "lightning rods" -- or setting up wild strawmen to distract and create dog-pile situations.

Ideally, combine these approaches together, and have them speak from the view you want to discredit.

Multiple participants also lend legitimacy, so use long-establish sockpuppet accounts and bots to give the appearance of consensus.

>standard SOP

Double-standard operating procedure.

Correct, COINTEL pro techniques that are used by many organizations (political super pacs, governments, etc.)

https://web.archive.org/web/20221215015113/https://pastebin....

Sounds like paranoia and another kind of whataboutism.

I want the other propaganda machines to be punished IN ADDITION to TikTok, not just TikTok because it's a Chinese propaganda machine.

HN discussions aren't delimited to what the OP or any other participants want to. NYPost is considered US propaganda to millions of people around the world, thousands of them are part of this forum. To question who is accusing another company of propaganda is a legitimate part of this discussion.

Now do some research on which country defends china’s shenanigans in europe in exchange for access to china’s markets, in order to sell their emissions cheating vehicles.

Hint: the same country that did russia favours in exchange for gas and oil. Hopefully the rest of the world finally understands what’s going on in europe, and why the continent stagnates both economically and politically.

Europe is not stagnating

Each country has its own propaganda. It's naïve to think that America doesn't have a propaganda and one is not influenced by it. We need a website that lists all of them (in markdown format).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Propaganda_by_country

Nah, wikipedia is highly manipulated. Maybe a git repo would work better.

Any particular examples/instances of that?

The co-founder said it himself?

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politic...

This would be a problem in any system I can imagine.

Why should I trust a random git repo more than wikipedia? I don't think the format the data is stored as (git vs wiki) says anything about the reliability of the information.

Wiki edits are already public. How would a git repo be better?

It's certainly not a magic pill, but there is a higher barrier to entry for making en edit through git. PR discussions could help minimize bs.

Glad to see TikTok finally being called out for what it is. A CCP propaganda surveillance machine.

Do a quick comparison of TikTok's algorithmic suggestions versus Douyin's (China tiktok). Culture war for thee but not for me.

Your suggestions, maybe.

What is the content of the aforementioned propaganda?

I swear TikTok is the only platform not outright pushing hate content. If NYP is mad about it then they’re probably doing something right.

Now do a report on American propaganda in American social media.

What’s American propaganda? Supporting Ukraine?

Do you believe that the only agenda US corporations and big tech companies are pushing onto their global audience is support for Ukraine?

sure. support for ukraine, minority rights, democracy, freedom. china is pushing propaganda to cover up their genocide. thinking the US is even remotely equivalent to china regarding propaganda is frankly insane; maybe you should read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_in_China as a primer on how China manipulates the truth. Also this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_censorship_abroad

TBH its funny when people bring up american propaganda anyway. US media outlets are so overly critical of america, to the point it borders on anti-american propaganda

our chad propaganda vs. their virgin propaganda

Well that’s the latest. Among CRT, DEI, and all the other acronyms of course.

This might be shocking to hear for some but fwiw: https://imgur.io/gallery/z1noQGJ

Also from 17 hours ago: "UFO hearing key takeaways: What a whistleblower told Congress about UAPs"

For detailed scientific elaboration on propaganda Jacques Ellul is a must read: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Ellul -> Joseph Weizenbaum has read him, and so should anyone who uses the P-word on HN :)

PS: Слава Україні! :)

Wow, thats rich coming from germany. Studying american “propaganda” in schools that is. I dont understand why the anti american sentiment is so prevalent in that country. Do they resent the us for fighting against them in ww2? Or for calling out their initially treacherous attitude towards the recent war? Although somehow germany appears to have the same attitude towards all other countries, including those in europe. Wondering if they understand that there will eventually be backlash.

not German so no idea, but pretty much how US is perceived literally anywhere outside the US including much of the English speaking world (there often the most because they have even more exposure culturally).

the reason why they feel threatened or resent the system might have to do with the US showing reducto ad absurdum what the ultimate conclusion of capitalism will be. Like a mirror that allows you to look into the future and it ain't pretty:

people without housing, no empathy for those worse off, lack of culture except the cult of making more money, most people stuck in several jobs without making ends meet, no functioning public transport, cults that celebrate billionaires and fake it until you make it culture (Theranos, WeChat, SV in general), a large proportion of the populace illiterate or in other ways too incompetent to vote for change, the ones that are able to vote do not have any choice other than a 2 party system which is the same sh1t but different color.

I can understand why some people may disagree with how things work in the us. And while there are pros and cons to it i think there’s a long road from a debate to teaching children in schools about “american propaganda”. That’s something adversarial countries do.

> Wow, thats rich coming from germany. Studying american “propaganda” in schools that is. I dont understand why the anti american sentiment is so prevalent in that country.

Why do you feel attacked by students learning about American propaganda? Why is it "anti American" to learn about this topic?

> Do they resent the us for fighting against them in ww2? Or for calling out their initially treacherous attitude towards the recent war? Although somehow germany appears to have the same attitude towards all other countries, including those in europe. Wondering if they understand that there will eventually be backlash.

You seem seriously agitated. Is the whole world supposed to treat America like a child, never mentioning bad things and only ever talking about positive sides?

Have you ever seriously sat down and looked at American propaganda, especially during/after WW2? It's a fascinating topic. I hope you realise that German students also learn about German propaganda - it's not something you do because the country you're learning about is evil, it's something you do because it's part of reality, and students should learn to critically think about reality.

Propaganda is propaganda, whether or not one appreciates the outcome, so yes, that would be one example.

My sensors have detected more than a little propaganda of various forms on the Ukraine topic. Lots of things going on there, and the English language (including how it's processed by consciousness: sub-perceptually) and western cultural norms and media structure offer a wide variety of ways to plant a false conceptualization of precisely what's going on in the public's minds.

A standard response to this is inaccurate/misleading rhetoric (based upon the individual's false conceptualization, here's where the magic lies), also a cultural norm.

The Smith–Mundt Modernization Act of 2012 makes it legal for the government to propagandize the population.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Defense_Authorization...

Lead by example and post one yourself.

new york's propaganda media accuse other media is a propaganda, classic

“It’s OK when we do it!” -US Govt. re: TikTok spying and propagandizing American citizens.

or chinese propagandists using tiktok to push chinese propaganda to millions of users in europe: analysis?

wtf is with these trolls this week...

from the nypost no less...

They have the power and can use it!

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