This reminds me a lot of the (presumably Russian disinformation) story that flitted around American conservative spheres early in the Ukraine war saying that the US gov was setting up bio weapon labs at the border with Russia and that's why the Russian invasion was justified. Funny how the exact same propaganda can be shared between conflicts to good effect presumably.
Instead, American right-wing conspiracy theorists seized on the idea, and then Russian media started talking about it.
The CCP UnitedFront don't seem to realise the damage they are doing to their own political image.
And for fellow HN readers no matter what you read about China always bear in mind that politics comes first. It is more important than lives, morals, history, families, science, economics. Everything is subservient to politics, everything. Not saying is good or bad - it is just the CCP "way".
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/w/us-asked-explain-a...
Robert Kennedy Jr also confirmed this. Not surprised - this is the same crap that occurred in Wuhan Institute of Virology. Since U.S. laws do not permit this stuff, the U.S. does bio weapons research outside the nation.
What russian or chinese interference is there when there is 24/7 anti-russian and anti-chinese propaganda?
I’m not even going to touch the thinly veiled antisemitic smear
If I were China I’d probably go with a hardware supply chain attack. These machines can sit around for years.
I think DARPA’s SSITH program is a step in the right direction. At the very least, I’d feel a lot better with bug bounties on publicly available demonstrators from all manufacturers.
There are hundreds of factors that will ultimately decide who wins on the day.
So, not sure they sat it out as much as the U.S. was a little better prepared. For instance, social media platforms did a better job of not being completely owned as fire hoses for propaganda and disinfo.
Of course, some then complained that this constituted "censorship" by the platforms.
Literally, by definition, and extending well beyond just election topics.
Better job by not cashing the adversaries checks?
https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/01/russian-facebook-ad-spend/...
> Of course, some then complained that this constituted "censorship" by the platforms.
Ah you mean the government going hunting and finding accounts that violated the ever changing ToS which was heavily influenced by the USG?
Safe to say that $46K ad spend was a drop in the bucket versus their overall effort, but sure, Facebook not accepting those rubles in 2020 counts as a small example.
I have no problem with the U.S. government working with American communications platforms to prevent adversarial propaganda, disinformation and disruption of US elections. These are foreign governments engaged in psyops against American citizens. Falls pretty squarely (and obviously) within government purview to defend against it.
And, in any case, if they're parroting the same disinfo as foreign adversaries who are working to destroy us, then they don't get special dispensation just because they're U.S. citizens.
This is why the First Amendment famously has limits.
You just described every social media platform.
"Interference" refers to China/Russia state-sponsored targetted propaganda on social media and the like.
Was it really the "most safe and secure" and is "interference" an accurate way to describe these type of activities? Well, one could argue about that. But you're mixing up two mostly unrelated things here.
They pulled out of the EU Code of Practice around disinformation back in May and they have been warned as recently as yesterday that the platform was the worst of all of the social networks at allowing Russian disinformation.
And I am sure everyone who used it has seen the massive uptick in bots and other coordinated activity.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/sep/09/x-twitter...
There is also proof and testimony that the US funded the Wuhan lab also.
“They're looking at pathogens that infect humans and animals with an emphasis on those that are endemic to Ukraine, Anthrax, tularemia, tuberculosis, botulism, classic swine fever, Crimean hemorrhagic fever, avian flu, those types of things.”
Just like Wuhan was just checking out some crazy bat strain. I don’t know what “Gain of Function” is.
https://www.defense.gov/News/Transcripts/Transcript/Article/...
https://ua.usembassy.gov/embassy/kyiv/sections-offices/defen...
https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/ukraine-news-russia-war-us-...
The insinuation which your sources refute is that they are bio-weapon labs.
And so if they are creating viruses to better understand how to cure them or prepare responses for dealing with them then that is a good thing. Creating a virus for use in a bio-weapon is a bad thing.
If you don't have bio-labs then you don't have cures so we can't get rid of them entirely.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1995/04/21/a...
As soon as the virus is developed, it can be used by other departments within the government easily with proper approval, and purposes other than intended.
Because that was a line of propaganda attack, but I'm willing to give you a chance to prove you are qualified and not just mindlessly regurgitating bullshit.