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.
No you are just being reactionary with a WhatAboutism. It’s about tone. It absolutely does deserve to be called out but like it can be pointed out for similarities or because you just want to shout that “they do it too!” And people don’t care much for that. It just doesn’t work to change minds, but shrink them against your statement because people are also reactionary.
Ah yes, the classic claim of “whataboutism”. You may not be aware of this, but whataboutism means pointing out something irrelevant to counter criticism e.g. the US pointing at breadlines in Soviet Russia and Soviet Russia saying “well what about lack of civil rights for black people in the US?”
People bringing up the US’s disinformation campaign in response to China’s disinformation campaign is not whataboutism. CNN, being a propaganda outlet for the US, is making the claim that China is using the world’s largest known online disinformation operation. That’s a point of comparison right there, so bringing up the US is perfectly valid.
What’s also funny is the cries about a supposed CCP army of trolls while all pro-US posts get overwhelming upvotes while any disagreement gets overwhelming downvotes. Speaking of reactionary…
No a WhatAboutism is when you don’t respond to the initial conversation and bring up a different point. Say like
But you don’t care you just want to be right which is why you get downvotes.
Like no one is going to engage with the rest of your argument when you are just trying to prove yourself right at an argument you want to have instead of the conversation happening.
Whatever dude. This is an important discussion but I ain’t having it with you.
Again, CNN is making the claim of “world’s known largest disinformation operation” so pointing out the US is valid because it’s a comparison from the beginning. The word “known” is a key word here because they can claim ignorance on the US bot operation, even though it is likely much larger. I did respond to the initial conversation by bringing up the point that the US disinformation operation exists as well i.e. this is called information warfare and all countries are engaging in it. You’d be stupid to think that wasn’t the case.
You were never actually engaging in this conversation because all you wanted anyone to talk about was “China bad” and anything beyond that you consider wHaTaBoUtIsM. Like, what else is there to discuss? That China should stop it? Yeah, I also wish we could get rid of nukes, but they’re a tool of nations that simply won’t be eliminated because they serve a purpose to further a nation’s agenda.
Anyway, you and you posse can continue mindlessly upvoting your posts while mindlessly downvoting my posts if it’ll help you folks sleep better. Just don’t engage, don’t think, only emphasize points your propaganda pals at CNN want you to emphasize.
China bad.
@hark can think for themselves! Take 'em down boyz!