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China Social Networks

Fake Pro-China Accounts Are Reaching Millions on Twitter (apnews.com) 74

Posted by EditorDavid from the tricky-tweets dept.
"A pro-China network of fake and impostor accounts found a global audience on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter to mock the U.S. response to the COVID-19 pandemic," reports the Associated Press, "as well as the deadly riot in Washington that left five dead, new research published Thursday found."

Slashdot reader schwit1 shared their report: Messages posted by the network, which also praised China, reached the social media feeds of government officials, including some in China and Venezuela who retweeted posts from the fake accounts to millions of their followers. The international reach marked new territory for a pro-China social media network that has been operating for years, said Ben Nimmo, head of investigations for Graphika, the social media analysis firm that monitored the activity. "For the very first time, it started to get a little bit of audience interaction," Nimmo said...

The posts appear to target social media users outside of the United States, gaining traction in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Venezuela — places where Chinese and U.S. diplomatic or financial interests have increasingly come into conflict. "The overall message is: America is doing very badly. China is doing very well," Nimmo said. "Who do you want to be like?" The network used photos of Chinese celebrities on the accounts and, in one case, hijacked the verified Twitter account of a Latin American soap opera show to post messages, according to Graphika's report... "There's this cherry-picking of narratives and events that make the U.S. look really bad," Nimmo said.

Last month, YouTube announced that it had removed more than 3,000 YouTube channels in December that were identified as part of Graphika's investigation into influence campaigns linked to China. Other Facebook and Twitter accounts identified in Graphika's report were also removed.
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Fake Pro-China Accounts Are Reaching Millions on Twitter More

Fake Pro-China Accounts Are Reaching Millions on Twitter

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  • I don't think that "Destroy the economy AND protect no one." has been considered a winning combination by anyone, US citizens includes.

    • Re:Not an unpopular sentiment even here. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Sunday February 07, 2021 @11:48AM (#61037390) Homepage Journal

      That's how it works - amplify existing discontent.

      At least that's how Russia did it. Surprised it has taken so long for other countries to join in, or is it just that we haven't noticed until now?

      • It was also key during the Arab spring, causing mass uprisings that were later supported by the US infusion of weapons to various rebel groups throughout the Middle East. This eventually lead to the rise of ISIS and the death of thousands, displacement of millions throughout the region. Which subsequently lead to a major right wing shift and xenophobia around the world, especially in Europe, in response to the influx of refugees. But hey, look at China.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by U0K ( 6195040 )
          Yeah, because everyone knows that you can only ever look at one issue at a time. You can't possibly look at more than one. So you have to choose one.

          Pay not attention to the Chinese government being in the process of exterminating entire ethnicities in their country. So because the US did some bad things, nothing that China does can be criticized.

          • The pot is black, therefore the kettle is not.

          • Re: (Score:1)

            by rtb61 ( 674572 )

            Get used to the new reality. More Chinese citizens are reading and writing English, and they are connected to the internet and they can gain social media score by posting preferable comments and so they do.

            Not fake accounts at all, when you start with 1.4 Billion Chinese, just in China https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] and they start getting more connected and read and write English more. They will post more and they will of course seek social media popularity in China so they will post to favor China, nat

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by U0K ( 6195040 )
              I take issue with the phrase of "instead". Because who said that we shouldn't look at the US but should look at China instead? It's a strawman to begin with.

              For one, the majority of the worlds population is neither from the US nor from China. Hence for us it's not even a US vs China thing unless you willingly align yourself with one side.
              I don't, because neither have wronged or 'righted' me personally. The only one's I could hold a grudge against for murdering my ancestors are the N@zis and the Soviet U

      • Re: (Score:2, Troll)

        by kot-begemot-uk ( 6104030 )

        That's how it works - amplify existing discontent.

        At least that's how EVERYONE HAS BEEN DOING IT. Surprised it has taken so long for other countries to join in, or is it just that we haven't noticed until now?

        Fixed it for you. This has been going on forever.

        Every large discontent and every large event - be it a larger strike, student protest, or anything else has a lineup of Sugar Daddys with fat suitcases and incitements attending.

        As one of the key people in command of a student protest in the 1990es I was offered that myself (I declined) and I had to deal with the aftermath of previous leaders taking it. The difference is that China is now BIG ENOUGH to actually offer something here.

        As far as the trolls, i

      • That's how it works - amplify existing discontent.

        At least that's how Russia did it. Surprised it has taken so long for other countries to join in, or is it just that we haven't noticed until now?

        It's been noticed for a long time by intelligent people with some sense. Unfortunately, that means it is very effective with others.

        Twitter, Facebook, and many other social sites are a fine way to weaponize stupidity.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Cylix ( 55374 )

      That is literally the slogan of the democrats.

  • Also... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by BytePusher ( 209961 ) on Sunday February 07, 2021 @11:48AM (#61037392) Homepage
    Fake anti-China bots are reaching millions on Twitter. So if you have any opinion on China at all you can be classified as a bot. Who wins? The ruling elite who want to wage economic wars.
    • Doesnt fake imply that they arent pro-china?

      • Fake fake fakes fake fake fake fakes ... fakely?

      • Umm, I was just sarcastically pointing out that there are conflicts among the ruling elite. The bot/fake account information conflict just leads us to a place where the public can't discern what is true or false, but also serves to keep the proletariat in conflict with one another as we suffer the collateral damage of the power struggles of the ruling elite.

    • Re:Also... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by geekmux ( 1040042 ) on Sunday February 07, 2021 @12:31PM (#61037506)

      Fake anti-China bots are reaching millions on Twitter. So if you have any opinion on China at all you can be classified as a bot. Who wins? The ruling elite who want to wage economic wars.

      With all of this, care to explain why society should even value this tool?

      Twitter is running the worlds largest rumor mill perpetuating themselves as "value-add" in society. And the worst part is watching government leaders using it frequently to incite political harm for Twitter team points instead of doing their damn job and reaching across the isle to work together.

      Hey there, Lawmaker Kelso A. Whore. Listen up. Your daily routine, should not require some kind of "BURRRN!" goal on social media, yet you seem to find value in that childish stupid shit. Maybe you shouldn't be a lawmaker, because all you're doing, is inciting and perpetuating Political Civil War.

      Twitter needs to die in a fire with a gallon of good-riddance gasoline.

      • team points instead of doing their damn job and reaching across the isle to work together.

        That would have to be one small island. /ducks

        • team points instead of doing their damn job and reaching across the isle to work together.

          That would have to be one small island. /ducks

          Hold your head high. Made me laugh. Cheers.

      • Thats a good post. I would think that the Swamp dweller's worst fear would be to have the BLM and the anti-swampers ACTUALLY unite, doubling the crowds of Jan 6, 2021. Therefore the constant narratives of GOP racism, fear-mongering, scapegoating the rich and inculcating ones followers with the delusional claim that government action will improve your life as much as getting a grip on your personal life and admitting your past mistakes, is a defensive measure to protect the vast wealth, power and offensive m

  • n millions * 0 = 0 (Score:4, Informative)

    by BAReFO0t ( 6240524 ) on Sunday February 07, 2021 @11:57AM (#61037412)

    If Twitter is even in your browser history ... well, there's your problem. Millions of accounts screaming in another dimesnsion of reality still is a perfect quiet from where I am.
    Or at least it would be, if you didn't constantly drag that Flappy Bird of "blogs" through our town.

    It's like going to your city's tourist hotspots, and then being surprised there's crooks there, who rip you off. ;)

    Twitter is literally designed for spreading brain-dead soundbites from PR agencies. Obviously, China would try that game too. I mean which part of their exports isn't a rip-off?

    Oh, and if you actually believe there is a relationship between users and people, and on Twitter, of all places, you seriously need to get your head checked, or ask mommy before going back on the Internet.

  • Re: (Score:1, Interesting)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • You make it sound like some coordinated network, a "commie cabal". Dictators are individuals who do things how they want (although often work with other dictators). Open democratic governments lie also. The difference is that they face more scrutiny from their own people, press, and political competitors.

      That being said, if we find solid evidence the Chinese gov't is behind this, then fight back: hack real criticism into their systems.

    • Exactly this. The kleptocrats are going to go down swinging because they know what happens to them if they can't exit the country when the inevitable happens...the same thing that happened to all of the nationalists that didn't escape to Taiwan in 1949. "Re-education" if you're lucky and a dirt nap if you're not.

      This is why we're seeing unprecedented capital flight from China.

  • Millions minus 1 (Score:3)

    by oldgraybeard ( 2939809 ) on Sunday February 07, 2021 @12:18PM (#61037474)
    I see no reason to care about Twitter, what those on Twitter are doing or what those on Twitter care about, say or think,
    • Sadly, the reason to care is that millions of your fellow countrymen are being misled by the content and then voting. Twitter wouldn't be an issue if its users had the necessary critical thinking skills to dismiss the garbage. Of course, Twitter would probably cease to exist in that case.

  • I suspect what we're looking at... (Score:3)

    by bferrell ( 253291 ) on Sunday February 07, 2021 @12:35PM (#61037522) Homepage Journal

    Is a kind of penultimate in marketing. Isn't that what "influencers" are?

    Another article is about farmers in Ghana resisting GMO crops, dealing with "scare-mongering and misinformation"... counter marketing.

    Funny how it's become a dual edged sword

  • President John Magufuli declared the country Covid-19 free and that you protect yourself with steam baths & smoothies [bbc.co.uk]. Were is that simple ...

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by randjh ( 7163909 )
      We'll never get accurate stats about Tanzania's virus prevalence. But will we see any valid economic data before and during? The rest of the world is running with shutdowns, and accepting the tradeoff of business death for human death. Be interesting to see the effect of choosing the opposite priority. Yes, I know that's a cold way of looking at it, but just like a placebo group in medical trials, there's could be useful info obtained.

  • It's a matter of priorities (Score:3)

    by Miles_O'Toole ( 5152533 ) on Sunday February 07, 2021 @12:44PM (#61037554)

    America doesn't need a lot of help to look bad. It does an excellent job of being a thuggish bully on the world stage all by itself.

    We shouldn't forget, though, that China is much worse. Its efforts to build a surveillance society Big Brother would envy are truly terrifying.

    • Yes, the "narrative" of propaganda is the US has done a terrible job with CoVID-19 response. I do not think you would find many sensible people that would disagree the US response has been lacking especially when the last administration was downplaying the seriousness and doing very little.
    • China wouldn't want to be a second-rate bully. In fact, it has stepped up its bullying in South China Sea (SEA nations), East China Sea (Japan, Taiwan), its borders with India, and the downstream countries of the Mekong River (Mainland SEA nations). You think US is a bully, you've never seen China in action.
  • "Do you all see now? Democracy is BAD! Freedom of Speech BAD! You don't need 'Civil Rights' or even 'Human Rights', Communism is best! We'll make all those pesky decisions about your life for you, won't that be a relief? The Chinese Communist Party is Mother and Father to All, we'll take care of EVERYTHING for you!"
    ..whether you LIKE IT OR NOT.
    People here in the U.S. talk about 'trading Freedom for the ILLUSION of safety/security', but let's face it, kids: We're Amateur Night compared to them, they take

  • China is in trouble and they know it. (Score:3)

    by gurps_npc ( 621217 ) on Sunday February 07, 2021 @01:38PM (#61037678) Homepage

    They successfully stopped their population explosion and are now in a similar position to Japan 20 years ago - their population boom bump is aging. One child family means not enough children to support the elderly. They are now actively encouraging people to have kids.

    But the people like having smaller families, just like America. But unlike America they do not have a pro-immigration culture.

    Pretty soon instead of having 5 workers supporting 2 elderly, it will be 2 workers supporting 5 elderly.

    China knows this and is a bit scared.

    • Re:China is in trouble and they know it. (Score:4, Interesting)

      by ChatHuant ( 801522 ) on Sunday February 07, 2021 @03:29PM (#61037960)

      [China] are now in a similar position to Japan 20 years ago. [...] Pretty soon instead of having 5 workers supporting 2 elderly, it will be 2 workers supporting 5 elderly.

      China knows this and is a bit scared.

      China has an "advantage" over Japan though: it's a dictatorial society, strongly hierarchical and nationalistic, I'd say more akin to pre-second world war Japan than to the democratic Japan of 20 years ago. This gives them some tools unavailable to democratic societies.

      Off the top of my head, they can
        - reduce social support for elderly people, driving mortality up
        - introduce "retiree living camps", where elder care is industrialized - thus cheaper. Basically a milder form of the re-education camps from the time of the cultural revolution, now targeting non-productive elders.
        - expand the extermination policies for some less productive communities or nationalities (see uighurs)
        - expand the aggressive expansion they have been and still are engaging in, taking ownership of the available resources. That includes both physical expansion (e.g., Tibet, South China, continuous pressure on Taiwan for unification) and economic expansion (e.g., expansive purchases of arable land in Africa)
        - start wars - the ultimate tool for pacifying your unruly population

      • - expand the extermination policies for some less productive communities or nationalities (see uighurs)

        Uighurs have much bigger families / more kids. That would just be shooting themselves in the other foot as well.

    • If going by population. US is also in trouble and they should know it. The birth rate in the US is VERY similar to what it was in Japan in the late 80s, right before the crash. So the US has four things that make it similar to Japan (1) birth rate; (2) huge economic crash; (3) a monetary policy of printing out money like it's paper; (4) fiscal debt

      • This has been the case for the USA since the 1960s. We did not fall into the same trap as Japan because while our birthrate is low, we encourage immigration rather than prevent it.

        It might have been a problem if the GOP was in charge, but not anymore.

        • Except in the 1960s the birth rate in the US was close to 4 per women, now it's 1.73. Just because the GOP is no longer in charge, things can change very quickly in 4 years. Immigration policy has always been a charged issue, that has been blamed in many ways for causing racial tensions as certain groups now consider themselves as becoming more the "minority" rather than the "majority", thus thinking that their culture is about to sound the death knell.

          Also if you look at population growth which includes

  • Meanwhile ... (Score:3)

    by PPH ( 736903 ) on Sunday February 07, 2021 @02:03PM (#61037732)

    ... Russia posts: Hey! Don't forget us. We're still here!
    Guys? Hey, where did everyone go?

  • Ben Nimmo certainly has had an exciting life for a computer nerd. He seems to have had a variety of reinventions depending on where he was working. And no, i am not a Chinese BOT or agent. I'm just suspicious of why these apparently independent "security firms" never catch American intelligence agencies.

  • They have put covid under effective control while the rest of the world has largely failed to do so. That includes lots of wealthier democratic countries.

  • Back in 2008 I wrote some greasemonkey / selenium script that automatically builds followers by following, posting and doing other various bot tasks. I ran it for a few hours and got bored. I could have been president by now! The chinese probably stole it from me and is using it against America! Encrypt your code damn it!
    =]

  • The headline is "Fake Pro-China Accounts Are Reaching Millions on Twitter". What this says is that the accounts are fake.

    But the accounts aren't fake. The accounts are real. The people allegedly behind them may be fake. In that case, it should be

    "Pro-China Twitter Bots are Reaching Millions"

    #slashdot #shitshow

  • Social media is not news!

    It is gossip. And, people who gossip always have an agenda.

    I swear, technology has either made people more stupid or just promoted the already stupid to the ruling class.

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