China Is Harvesting 'Masses' of Data on Western Targets from Social Media (msn.com) 42
The Washington Post reports:
China is turning a major part of its internal Internet data surveillance network outward, mining Western social media, including Facebook and Twitter, to equip its government agencies, military and police with information on foreign targets, according to a Washington Post review of hundreds of Chinese bidding documents, contracts and company filings.
China maintains a countrywide network of government data surveillance services — called public opinion analysis software — that were developed over the past decade and are used domestically to warn officials of politically sensitive information online. The software primarily targets China's domestic Internet users and media, but a Washington Post review of bidding documents and contracts for over 300 Chinese government projects since the beginning of 2020 include orders for software designed to collect data on foreign targets from sources such as Twitter, Facebook and other Western social media.... These surveillance dragnets are part of a wider drive by Beijing to refine its foreign propaganda efforts through big data and artificial intelligence. They also form a network of warning systems designed to sound real-time alarms for trends that undermine Beijing's interests... Some of the Chinese government's budgeting includes buying and maintaining foreign social media accounts on behalf of police and propaganda departments....
The documents describe highly customizable programs that can collect real-time social media data from individual social media users. Some describe tracking broad trends on issues including U.S. elections... The exact scope of China's government public opinion monitoring industry is unclear, but there have been some indications about its size in Chinese state media. In 2014, the state-backed newspaper China Daily said more than 2 million people were working as public opinion analysts... In June 2020, Twitter suspended 23,000 accounts that it said were linked to the Chinese Communist Party and covertly spreading propaganda to undermine pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. This month, Twitter said it removed a further 2,048 accounts linked to Beijing and producing coordinated content undermining accusations of rights abuses in Xinjiang.
Experts say those accounts represent a small fraction of China's efforts to boost pro-Beijing messaging on foreign social media.
Reached for comment, a Twitter spokesperson told the Post," We prohibit use of our API for surveillance purposes, as per our developer policy and terms."
The Post adds that Facebook "did not respond to requests for comment about whether it is aware of the monitoring...."
China maintains a countrywide network of government data surveillance services — called public opinion analysis software — that were developed over the past decade and are used domestically to warn officials of politically sensitive information online. The software primarily targets China's domestic Internet users and media, but a Washington Post review of bidding documents and contracts for over 300 Chinese government projects since the beginning of 2020 include orders for software designed to collect data on foreign targets from sources such as Twitter, Facebook and other Western social media.... These surveillance dragnets are part of a wider drive by Beijing to refine its foreign propaganda efforts through big data and artificial intelligence. They also form a network of warning systems designed to sound real-time alarms for trends that undermine Beijing's interests... Some of the Chinese government's budgeting includes buying and maintaining foreign social media accounts on behalf of police and propaganda departments....
The documents describe highly customizable programs that can collect real-time social media data from individual social media users. Some describe tracking broad trends on issues including U.S. elections... The exact scope of China's government public opinion monitoring industry is unclear, but there have been some indications about its size in Chinese state media. In 2014, the state-backed newspaper China Daily said more than 2 million people were working as public opinion analysts... In June 2020, Twitter suspended 23,000 accounts that it said were linked to the Chinese Communist Party and covertly spreading propaganda to undermine pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. This month, Twitter said it removed a further 2,048 accounts linked to Beijing and producing coordinated content undermining accusations of rights abuses in Xinjiang.
Experts say those accounts represent a small fraction of China's efforts to boost pro-Beijing messaging on foreign social media.
Reached for comment, a Twitter spokesperson told the Post," We prohibit use of our API for surveillance purposes, as per our developer policy and terms."
The Post adds that Facebook "did not respond to requests for comment about whether it is aware of the monitoring...."
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Ha ha ha, this sounds like a *you* problem.
Frankly I'm glad to see you so frustrated, maybe karma is real after all!
Too funny (Score:5, Funny)
Reached for comment, a Twitter spokesperson told the Post, "We prohibit use of our API for surveillance purposes, as per our developer policy and terms."
Oh yeah, I'm that will put the fear of god into 'em and make them stop.
Next headline: "China's International Surveillance State Plans Foiled By Twitter Terms of Service"
Re:Too funny (Score:4, Funny)
Terms of service don't exist to stop people from doing shady shit.
They exist so Twitter can ban folks for doing shady shit and justify it in court.
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Reached for comment, a Twitter spokesperson told the Post, "We prohibit use of our API for surveillance purposes, as per our developer policy and terms."
Oh yeah, I'm that will put the fear of god into 'em and make them stop.
Next headline: "China's International Surveillance State Plans Foiled By Twitter Terms of Service"
Hey, we STILL have strongly worded letters . . .
Just sit there while they passively aggressively b (Score:2)
Just stand right here in the "X", the big weapon aimed right at that spot you have to ignore and pretend doesn't exist until it's completely functional and ready to fire but then it'll be too late.
This is that small Zerg base that appeared right off of your natural Expo, but is currently friendly. Just leave it there until they get a bunch of Ultralisks burrowed. Surely nothing bad will happen.
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What are you blithering about?
Literally every group scrapes social media (Score:5, Insightful)
You dont think your favorite political party does it? Cambridge Analytica would like to have a word with you. And they were only caught cause they were sloppy. Tip of the iceberg.
Companies do it. Read any TOS, and then remember that the TOS only applies to YOU. The company follows their own, different set of rules, and they arent even obligated to explain those rules. The only company that’s even the tiniest bit responsible with your data is Apple, because theyve built their entire business model around being the premium experience.
Is anyone here so naive as to think that China, Russia, and every other moderately sophisticated state actor isn’t doing exactly the same thing?
Even tor is compromised. If you think you have privacy on the internet, you’re probably dreadfully naive and you’re overestimating your own abilities.
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Re:Literally every group scrapes social media (Score:5, Insightful)
The only company that’s even the tiniest bit responsible with your data is Apple
Apple gives some lip service to privacy, and does take some degree of care with data; not commendably large, but perhaps arguably more than a few other companies in some ways. But Apple is no white knight / angel; their CSAM system [schneier.com] is a distopian nightmare, and their air tags have given an enormous crowbar to stalkers... to say nothing of their greater app-store lockin than Android, and various other things. When it comes to privacy, "believe" in nothing and nobody other than the ability you -- or some person you trust for substantial reasons -- have to set up the handling of your data with open-sources software on your machines.
Re: Literally every group scrapes social media (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: Literally every group scrapes social media (Score:2)
Re:Literally every group scrapes social media (Score:5, Informative)
All the parties that mine social media also run extensive de-anonimization programs. If something or someone has been found to endanger the [State | Corporate | Party | Mob ] (scratch out the ones which do not apply), a couple of clicks yield the names, addresses, affiliations and the entire "credit history" of the threat. Or, quoting John Bolton: "We know where you kids go to school".
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You dont think the US government does it? Id like to introduce you to this little thing called the NSA.
Yes but these kinds of articles are just US propaganda. Every government does this kind of propaganda targeting theirs rivals and it works really well.
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It's Much Worse Than I Thought (Score:4, Informative)
It's much worse than I thought. They're using AI to derive my poop levels based on my shitposting, and God alone knows what evil schemes they'll level against me with that information. It's just too much power.
More seriously, I feel largely apathetic about this aspect of Chinese surveillance. I feel that those that choose to overshare with the world aren't really in a position to complain about "certain people" using it. But, I also have concern about my own information, unshared by me, being leaked by others across these platforms.
But, what I'm seeing and feeling is FAR more concerning is the clear and present manipulation of people in social media and forums(Reddit is overrun) by what I assume to be Chinese operatives and bots of undetermined origin/motivation. It's truly rampant and it is even starting to have a small impact on me, despite my awareness of it's presence and prevalence. I fear that the manipulation of the clueless is going to be a major detriment to Western society.
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You make a good point.
The AI will eventually get so good that we will have to back to very small ‘people who I know’ networks.
Re: It's Much Worse Than I Thought (Score:2)
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Who will you be? (Score:2)
China and everybody else (Score:2, Insightful)
There is really nothing special in what China does here.
Re:China and everybody else (Score:5, Insightful)
There is really nothing special in what China does here.
True - but there may be something 'special' in what they do with the information they gather. If they use all that info effectively to create more granular, better-targeted propaganda campaigns, then popular support for pushback against China will be even lower than it already is.
The West is in a new Cold War and collectively we seem not to have figured that out. Anti-China feelings seem very minor compared with the prevalence of anti-Russia feelings back in the day. Of course, the West's economies weren't dependent on Soviet bloc trade the way they are now dependent on trade with China.
But, hey - globalization's a good thing, right? /sarc
The analysts reviewing it are dying from overdose (Score:3)
So is every other country including America (Score:2)
Keep in mind that large scale wars or a thing of the past because our ruling elites are global now. They own property across the globe in complex w
Re: So is every other country including America (Score:2)
I know that you are writing this in critique of capitalism, but you essentially said that global capitalist brought (quasi) world peace.
Funny.. (Score:1)
More "Fuck China" from the Washington Post. (Score:1)
Seriously, this is like pointing to a candle while a house is burning down and saying the candle is a fire hazard.
"Fake News for Nerds, Stuff that is bullshit".
incognito (Score:2)
How does their store of data compare to ours? (Score:2)
But nothing the NSA (Score:1)
Why? (Score:1)