The Chinese government has built up the world’s largest known online disinformation operation and is using it to harass US residents, politicians, and businesses—at times threatening its targets with violence, a CNN review of court documents and public disclosures by social media companies has found.
The onslaught of attacks – often of a vile and deeply personal nature – is part of a well-organized, increasingly brazen Chinese government intimidation campaign targeting people in the United States, documents show.
The US State Department says the tactics are part of a broader multi-billion-dollar effort to shape the world’s information environment and silence critics of Beijing that has expanded under President Xi Jinping. On Wednesday, President Biden is due to meet Xi at a summit in San Francisco.
Victims face a barrage of tens of thousands of social media posts that call them traitors, dogs, and racist and homophobic slurs. They say it’s all part of an effort to drive them into a state of constant fear and paranoia.
Hit em with that “Taiwan number 1” to send em back to the shadow realm
I can’t prove it, but my hunch is a lot of the obnoxious people I argue with online, who seem unable to see reason or resist devolving to insults and twisting my words, are actually foreign operatives tasked with depleting American morale
IDK, I think there are a lot of pretentious idiots who refuse to engage in good faith discussions without any direct ties to any foreign governments. People adamantly hold on to all kinds of stupid opinions and argue fervently for them.
So it’s hard to tell who the foreign operatives are if regular people are willing to spread disinformation without any kind of compensation.
True, but the people funding disinformation operations believe they’re making a difference, and anti-disinformation operations like Bellingcat agree with them.
I think a better way to view is that malicious actors have managed to weaponize the “pretentious idiots” you referred to, making them an integral part of their propaganda strategy. They’re useful idiots working for foreign governments without even knowing it, and the way they’re manipulated and amplifying deliberate propaganda makes them far more influential than they would be if they were just spewing their own personal idiocy.
That’s fair. My point is that the person you’re talking to is unlikely to be a foreign operative, so calling them on their BS (if you do it well) could have enough of a ripple effect to get others to ignore them.
It’s a huge pain, and it’s not something anyone will ever win, but I think it’s important. It’s a lot easier to neutralize an idiot than a professional.
Western Moral. I’ve got the same hunch here in Europe.
Weird, my sensation is that everyone online agrees with me and thinks I’m very smart and overall a great guy.
Most
delusionaltypical conservative.Thank you.
You see? Another fan.
linux
You’re so sexy, daddy.
That’s where the psy-op is though. So much of our communication even in our local communities is done online anymore.
So just putting that uncertainty in your head of “I bet a large percentage of people we interact with are just Pooh-bear sock puppets” might be enough subtle false-flagging to heavily polarize entire societies, when we remember China excels at taking bad things and applying them “at scale.”
At a time when we’re deprived of and seeking community and social bonds, it’s isolating, it’s depressing, and it’s doing a ton of potential damage.
Nono tankies aren’t Chinese operators, they’re CIA, tasked to discredit the left. That’s important because they’d be proud of the former but are enraged by the latter.
tasked to discredit the left
Ah, yes, of course, the classic strategy of discrediting the left by using the viewpoints of the definitely not left wing movement of … checks notes communism?
The strategy of equating a classless, stateless, and moneyless society with brutal, authoritarian, oligarchy-run, very much statist, state capitalism. Just paint all means of oppression red and it’s going to be fine, amirite?
Marxist-Leninists do not argue that when you have a communist revolution that you’ll just magically end up with communism. Look into the “dictatorship of the proletariat.”
Just paint all means of oppression red and it’s going to be fine, amirite?
No, of course not. China has a strategy of democratic centralism, which actually seems to be a quite effective implementation of a democracy. Unlike in countries like the US, Chinese citizens are quite satisfied with their government.
democratic centralism, which actually seems to be a quite effective implementation of a democracy.
Read your fucking Lenin. Democratic centralism is an organisational principle for parties, not for societies. Also it doesn’t work as the enforced unity (“thou shalt not question shit that has been voted on”) allows authoritarianism to take root, especially considering that party officials were never freely elected, but from lists drawn up by guess who those already in power.
It’s always funny, Tankies thinking other leftists don’t know anything about the mechanics of ML parties and their state-level experiments. We do. We understand it. We know where it leads. That’s why we don’t want that shit because to communism it leads not.
As to China. Fucking China. China doesn’t even have public healthcare. It has billionaires. It’s not even state capitalism it’s straight-up authoritarian capitalism. Singapore but in corrupt, without rule of law, and with polling that you can’t trust because people are both afraid of speaking their mind, as well as isolated from the world.
I honestly can’t imagine any other reason why internet leftists would defend an autocratic capitalist nation so vehemently, while also putting so much effort into excluding European social democracy from leftist spaces.
Certainly social democracy would be an improvement for the US people over what the US currently has.
Quick question, though, Wikipedia gives this definition of a communist state:
A communist state is a form of government that combines state leadership of a communist party, Marxist–Leninist political philosophy and an official commitment to construct a communist society.
How does this not apply to China? It sure makes sense to me that a communist forum would support a communist state…
The problem with that is the fact its a descriptor. Basically ever so called communist state since the Soviet Union has in some way been influenced by so called “Marxist-Leninism” due to soviet and now chinese influence. The thing there is a shit-ton of leftists who see MLs as nothing more than fascists with a red paint job, so will thusly argue that china isnt communist.
Plus you could have a communist society which actively lynches MLs which would actively invalidate that qoute you put up.
Its a bad definition, itd be like making a definition for republics based solely on the the Commonwealth of England.
It’s called tik tok isn’t it?
They’re all over, here it’s called hexbear.
Tik-Tok’s only problem is capitalism. /s
I’d bet I’m not the first person to write that sentence on Lemmy, Hexbear and elsewhere. The problem is right here and everywhere.
That and MAGA.
West Taiwan you mean?
Free Puerto Rico
Make it an official state
Weird way to say tiktok sucks but ok.
Fuck the CCP, fuck an Chinese citizen participating in this, fuck your mudda, fuck your muddas mudda, like a someboody fuck you bic
Taiwan numba wun
Freedom of speech should not extend to foreign adversaries. Give me the ability to geoblock social media just like I can with my router at home. Accurately label any domestic sources that are relaying this disinformation as well so I can block them too.
Freedom of speech should not extend to foreign adversaries.
Hot take incoming…
Actually, I would argue the opposite.
Now that we have global access to each other, we should be speaking to each other, and finding common ground. We all share the same planet.
And when speaking to adversaries, we should consider what they’re saying for truthfulness or if it’s just an attack, before deciding to ignore/block it or not.
This is the same problem with being tolerant with intolerants. While ideologically might make sense, it’s a losing battle that favors bad faith actors.
While ideologically might make sense, it’s a losing battle that favors bad faith actors.
That’s an assumption. You “trust but verify” (as a famous former president said), and if they’re not acting in good faith, then you move on from talking to other actions.
A foreign adversary isn’t a uninformed troll engaging in debate. Their job is to attack a target. Supporting their right to attack is like supporting telemarketer scammers right to robocall everyone. You aren’t going to debate them out of scamming. They have a job to do.
A foreign adversary isn’t a uninformed troll engaging in debate.
How do you know? It could be his/her day off.
They have a job to do.
A “foreign adversary” has many jobs, not all of them is to shape a narrative on the Internet.
Having said that, my use of the term was more generic in nature, as a country that has opposing motives/goals than we do (Iran, etc.).
We’re dancing close enough to the Armageddon line at this point as it is, its ok to pull back a bit and try peaceful means to resolve issues, instead of just ‘pushing the button’. Generally speaking, the more we talk, the less we fight.
You are ignoring the premise that these are identified foreign adversaries who are not looking for debate. There is no one to debate because the harassment if from fake accounts.
The targets are being doxed, dogpiled, and “told to kill themselves”.
these are identified foreign adversaries who are not looking for debate.
You are making an assumption (the italicized part).
It’s not an assumption. It is the basis of the article! Or do you actually support death threats?
Or do you actually support death threats?
Ah damn it! You’ve discovered my nefarious plan! Curses!
/s
Yeah, the Chinese and Russians on one side…
and “our” own government on the other.
Victims face a barrage of tens of thousands of social media posts that call them traitors, dogs, and racist and homophobic slurs
What’s the difference between that and the average unhinged MAGA republican?
Americans don’t need enemies with “friends” like them.
I mean, just look at the comments section on X or Instagram and you’ll see this playing out in real time.
What? Shocked! Shocked I am to find out the second you go after the CCP an army of trolls shows up!
Damn, all this time Hexbear was actually getting paid?
Imagine that, getting paid to cast hexes
Obviously a lot of state actors are involved in forms of information warfare including China and they certainly have the resources to be very effective in that area.
You follow the money and a lot of the time it is going to end up the same place as a disproportionate amount of the world’s capital which is in the USA and the west in general. The amount of damage the fossil fuel industry has done to the world is immeasurable and makes China insignificant by comparison. They funded anyone who would take their side and supported a many forms of extremism in the process, all to prolong the value of their investments and leaving a horrendous legacy for future generations.
I am concerned about China’s massive military expansion and their impact on regional stability, but dealing with that is on a whole different level of concern to some of the other influences on our media and politics.
So CNN finally discovered Hexbear?
This article presents no evidence of this. The report they linked here: https://www.mandiant.com/resources/blog/dragonbridge-targets-rare-earths-mining-companies also presented literally no evidence. Just some screen shots. No IP Addresses? No actual proof?
I’m glad the CIA has run out of ideas, it’s getting pathetic at this point.
So the article about misinformation is itself misinformation?!? I feel like I’m in a cross between Oceans 11 and Inception.
Good thing this instance isn’t federated with lemmygrad.ml & hexbear.net, protecting everyone from
Absolutely, we might have to deal with the sheer terror of alternative viewpoints. It’s like wearing a raincoat in the desert – better safe than sorry, right?"
They still leak into here.
