TikTok has been pushing Chinese propaganda to millions of users in Europe: analysis::More than 1,000 ads from Chinese state media outlets have run on European users’ TikTok feeds since October 2022, according to the platform’s latest ad library update that was analyzed by Forbes.
The NYPost (low-quality tabloid) is just echoing an actual article at Forbes, which can also be accessed in archive form here.
In general, when a low-quality tabloid site merely reports on the existence of research done by actual reporters, it’s better to follow the links and post the researched article instead of the tabloid one.
Spread the gospel! Cite the primary sources as much as possible.
That’s something we’re supposed to learn in High School.
Though the secondary sources are equally important (adding some commentary can be very helpful), the secret is to be critical of whatever you read.
It’s incredible how easy it is to check so many articles by simply spending 2 minutes finding a primary source. Really changed my perspective on what was happening when I first tried it.
NYPost is owned by the same company that owns FOX News.
I have been seeing some really low effort propaganda that verges on trolling from Forbes on YouTube.
Downvote everything from that fuckin rag. Don’t post NYPost here. If there’s a story, find a news source that doesn’t itself have an outrageous history of propagandizing.
Where do you find these?
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See that other article on the NYPost next to this one? A guy turned himself into a border collie? He’s a dog now and it only cost $20,000.
Great news source. No problems here. Not click bait garbage at all. Nope, not meant for maximum sharing. Thanks L4sBot for your contribution.
$20,000 to become your fursona would be a fucking steal to most furries, they would sell everything for that.
In the first paragraph:
TikTok has flooded millions of Europeans with ads from Chinese state propaganda outlets on topics like COVID-19 and tourism in the troubled Xinjiang region, according to an analysis of a recent ad library conducted by Forbes.
I’d still object to NYPost being used as source for anything outside shitpost or a degen meme community like NCD.
Good thing we have a legit Forbes article to back this up!
Breaking news! Chinese company runs ads paid for by Chinese government! Did anyone think otherwise? All governments pay for ads. Who in their right mind would think a Chinese company would refuse their government as an ad customer?
Ads are one thing but state propaganda is something different. In a US political context this would be like the State of Florida running “Ads” on Facebook discussing how slavery was actually beneficial to the slaves. Get it now?
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Right. It certainly happens to the West. But the governments in Western democracy have to be a bit more subtle when it comes to their propaganda and not run this stuff directly.
Arguably, more effective, due to their subtlety
I think they’re sadly quite effective on us. But I think the Chinese “Communist” regime’s propaganda is quite effective within China. It just doesn’t work well on us.
This is one of the huge reasons why online privacy is so important, even when you “don’t have someting to hide.” Those big tech data hogging shit companies manipulate you without you knowing.
But honestly, if you use TikTok unironically, this is totally on you.
Same with twitter, instagram, facebook and linkedin.
Do…people use Tiktok ironically?
Jokes aside, I’m going to go against the grain a bit. I liked having Tiktok during the pandemic, it probably saved my mental health. The algorithm showed me videos of people having the same experience as me with the lockdown, or just stuff about my hobbies (I never got the horny stuff people always complain about).
But I uninstalled it after social distancing rules were relaxed in my country because I started getting more and more polarizing and political videos, even though I wouldn’t engage with them.
It could honestly be a great social media platform if it was based in a more privacy respecting country and we didn’t live in a capitalist hellscape where everything has be for profit.
It’s not that special is the thing. Any tech company can replicate what tik-tok is doing it’s just that they don’t have inertia that tik-tok does.
What does it mean to use TikTok ironically? How is that different from using it normally?
Tiktok has 1 billion users. Whatever message they decide to push is going to propagate through the masses. I don’t think most people have the ability to notice and deflect misinformation like you’re implying.
TikTok is garbage, but perhaps we should look at all the ridiculous right wing propaganda pushed by YouTube, Facebook and Twicough X
YouTube is absolutely dreadful for it. I have literally zero interest in American politics, I’m interested in world events but frankly couldn’t care less about another country’s domestic politics yet it’s pushed almost every time I load the site.
I mostly watch things like travel vlogs and trip reports, yet get endless spam about right wing American politics. There’s nothing in my search history that would suggest I’d care about it.
The advertisers cater adverts to target demographics and search/web history. While you may not be interested in them, they are certainly interested in you for some reason. They could be bad at their jobs, but it’s more likely there is some overlap there.
It’s the YouTube algorithm that’s pushing this garbage and it’s blatantly obvious, the actual adverts largely line up with my interests. If I don’t watch a YouTuber for a couple of weeks they disappear from my reccommed. I never watch anything about American politics, barely watch any American YouTubers yet there it is every single time without fail.
Exactly. It’s all propaganda, and to say “oh well Facebook is ok, so why pick on TikTok” is the hottest of takes.
They’re all garbage and we should ban all of them.
Only use Twitter reddit. I’m getting pissed off eith both. More shit. I understand they are all “free”, but I still want a basic standard.
Yeah well Orwell’s 1984 was way off then. The government does not even have to force people to install devices in their homes that blare government propaganda 24/7. They are doing it willingly, enthusiastiacally even, and they don’t even have to be citizens of that government lol
Who would have thought?
Who would have thought?
Aldus Huxley?
George Orwell
Aldus Huxley?
Propaganda is alive and well in the USA too, especially if you consider it in the most liberal sense.
There’s an incredible amount of advertising in the media telling me what I need to think about any issue you can imagine. Most people just ignore it, but it annoys the crap out of me. I’ll make up own damn mind, thank you.
This is a modern development, you never saw that crap forty years ago. I’m old enough to remember the before time. Most of it I can avoid simply by not watching commercial TV and blocking ads on the internet. Though sometimes it squeaks through on the TV and it makes me want to throw a chair at it.
When I do have the misfortune of seeing that garbage it’s usually on TV and has an Ad Council logo on it. Who are these people and how are they able to egregiously spend the large amounts of money it takes to repeat ads on TV like that. That’s a lot of money consumed in a futile attempt to brainwash me through repetition.
They could take that same ad money and actually use it to provide relief for some important social issues, like starving children. Instead they’d rather use it to try and influence my opinion in a futile way. Man that is really fucked up when you think about it.
Look up the term “mindshare” if you want to have some fun. They aren’t even shy about the idea that they’re literally attempting to buy and sell parts of your mind. Advertising is the most openly unethical legitimate industry that exists. I’d say social media is worse, but it’s intertwined and they aren’t honest about what they do.
Mobile gaming is also up there, with in app purchases, Gatcha addiction mechanisms which are basically modern day gambling, and yes also ad spamming. Where would you rank it?
Again I’d say they’re not as openly unethical because they pretend they’re not preying on people.
Most people just ignore it
In a way yeah sure, but the unconscius doesn’t forget 24/7 ads. We can’t possibly escape them since they’re literally everywhere. Whatever you buy, is done under the influence of at least some kind of advertisement (buy cheap/ fancy/ green/ fuckall)
Oh no, they are polluting our own US and European propaganda.
noooo we have only facts and truth! Only the bad guys lie and do teh ebil propeganda. Oh wait who blew up the Nord Stream? Anyway the us said it was the spoopy russians. Really sorry that german industries got shot in the legs, and don’t you look at who stands to gain by that.
who downvoted this ?
Me
Maybe they should try speaking like a normal person? It’s fucking annoying.
srry, next time i’ll try being more serious then?
with the exodus, too many libs. We’ve got to break their ideological bubble, of the cult that is liberalism
sadly true.
And American social media does the same for America. Every dog barks for its master.
Moreover, how is anyone sitting in America (or a country with American bases) primarily concerned about the Chinese government? We have endless military and culture war/ propaganda barriers erected against them; we’re basically untouchable, unless we plan on physically going to China.
(The answer is related to the propaganda barriers themselves – it’s acceptable / encouraged to criticize China).
Can you describe what “propaganda barriers” means? From my perspective, it’s absurdly easy for foreign governments to bot-farm posts in an attempt to sway public opinion in the US.
And of course it’s acceptable/encouraged to criticize China. But it’s also acceptable/encouraged to criticize Joe Biden, Donald Trump, AOC, DeSantis, Obama, and on and on. There’s not really a shortage of hateful and divisive content out there right now. The rage-bait about what The Other Team just did and how America is in terminal decay are the biggest propaganda wins of all time. And news orgs, desperate for revenue in an age of digital media and ad blockers, will chase whatever is stuck in people’s heads so they fuel it even more.
Well, even still, the US government and corporations have by far the upper hand. They control or heavily influence the school curriculums, for starters, in addition to most news media. Essentially, the lion’s share of information that reaches most people throughout most of their lives.
Any social media -based sway from a foreign actor will be comparatively marginal, and will be at very best at an even keel with domestic.
That is exactly why these rags have to keep publishing anti china stories nonstop. Western countries need to convince the public that China is a threat despite all you said, so they can eventually justify western aggression and still try to come off as the real victims.
You’re not necessarily wrong in all respects, but this comment is peak whataboutism. Western tiktok is targeted mostly at children and young adults who are obviously highly impressionable, so I would argue that regardless of whats happening on any other social media platform, this is unwanted and harmful and therefore shouldn’t be accepted.
The difference is there is American federal policy being put in place around TikTok specifically that is not being done against other social media apps.
Yea when people organize an attempted coup on Chinese tiktok, your point may hold more water. Not saying it’s a good thing, but it’s clear that Facebook et al’s primary motive is not promoting nationalistic goals; domestically or aboard.
The right-wing pipeline is well documented in both Facebook and YouTube.
Bro Youtube is still very often full of grifting, hawkery and other disgusting stuff.
Whataboutism is the correct and logical answer to hypocrites. There is nothing that Tiktok is guilty of that Twitter or Instagram aren’t.
For sure. Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts are all functionally identical and equally concerning as TikTok in every way, and Xitter is trying to jump onto that too.
Are children and young adults really more impressionable than Fox news, and thereby Facebook’s, audience?
I also don’t know that I agree with “targeted mostly at children and young adults”. There are very large parts of TikTok that would be wholly unappealing to your average kid. Not to mention that American social media started out very much targeted at children and young adults. Or have we already forgotten what the main demographics of Facebook and myspace used to be?
The problem with whataboutism here is that these conversations pretty much always involve TikTok and rarely other platforms until it’s brought up in comments where it can be dismissed as whataboutism.
Either they’re all a problem (it’s this one) or none of them are. We need to stop drawing arbitrary lines between offenders. It’s just giving a bunch of shit bags freedom to continue being shit bags.
Are children and young adults really more impressionable than Fox news
Fox News isn’t being paid by the Federal or State Governments to run “Ads” that attempt to put a positive spin on negative events.
Suuuure. Not paid directly by the gov, but unless you’ve been living under a rock, everyone knows that politicians and big corporations (or in this case: Fox News) work hand in hand to push propaganda… Or like you said “put a positive spin on negative events”.
People just like to jump on TikTok and be like CHINA BAD!. As if America was an angel lmao.
WTF is wrong with you? China is running ads trying to convince people that they’re not really genociding the Uyghur Muslims they’re just detaining them to send them all to school!
As if America was an angel lmao.
I never said it was, again WTF is wrong with you in your head? Criticizing one group doesn’t equate to support for an opposing group.
Does it count when a major political party, that does that all the time, uses the money it pilfered from that government, or is that different somehow?
What about that the only reason they’re not doing it directly from the government account is because of the safeguards against that kind of thing they haven’t pulled down yet
A political party is not the Government nor do their ads attempt to whitewash Government misdeeds.
A political party makes up parts of the government and uses their ads to whitewash their own actions within the government.
This division is not at clean as you’re trying to make it
Oftentimes they’re connected to party members mate. Trump literally spoke to a bunch of their broadcasters daily.
Was the US Federal Government paying Fox News to run ads talking about how the mass murder of American Indians was a good thing?
No? Then GTFO out of here with this whataboutism. It’s fucking gross.
The same people fund both the government (through elections) and the news media. I guarantee you Murdoch is friends with many of his fellow billionaires.
L
Facebook ran ads paid for by Russian propagandists which IMO is far worse than a Chinese company running Chinese ads.
Both are bad, so prosecute and ban them both.
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China is markedly worse than the US, though.
China did not invade Iraq or Afganistan
As an American, I can say that my government sucks for invading Iraq and Afghanistan and face no repercussions. I did so before those wars and have done so repeatedly since.
As a Chinese citizen, I can be arrested for singing a song about Hong Kong. Or saying that Tibet isn’t China, or that Taiwan should be left alone. God forbid I ask about what’s happening in Xinjiang. Or what happened in Beijing in 1989, or why the Great Leap Forward resulted in so many deaths of my countrymen. Or practicing Flaun Dafa, or whatever else.
Nobody is saying the US is perfect: the US has its problems, we can and should be better. But China is never honest about their shit and punishes people who are. China’s markedly worse than the US.
They let you complain about Iraq and Afghanistan because your complaints are irrelevant. You have no power to change policy.
I have free speech rights under the constitution. That’s not the case in China.
Don’t shift the goal posts - there’s a huge difference between the countries, and China is strictly worse.
@fist_of_fartitude @ghariksforge if you’re an american maybe
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this is not 4chan buddy
So has YouTube lately.
That and right-wing propaganda. So much propaganda.
Just click on any video from a “liberal media” outlet, (like CNN), and look at the comments. (Or the dislike count if you have Return YouTube Dislike installed.)And then look at a video from Fox News. Nothing but praise for them, while the “liberal” videos are filled with so much hate from right-wing trolls.
If you didn’t know any better, you could be lead to believe than 98% of Americans are Republican.
its not just an american problem either, same stuff you will see on similarly leaning news articles and videos here in australia. all rambling about the same inconsequential shit that the cookers and loonies overseas ramble about as well.
Its pretty funny that for the type of people that like to brag about ‘do your own research’, they sure are a bunch of stupid sheep that believe any idiotic thing they read online
Hmmm wonder what the common thread between media in the US and Australia could be…? 😯
If God is real, I’m about to read an article about the deaths of the entire Murdoch family.
yeah, we kinda wish he wasnt one of ours…
We can pretend. He doesn’t have passport.
It’s a testament to the amount of propaganda money can buy from the troll factories.
Nothing but praise for them, while the “liberal” videos are filled with so much hate from right-wing trolls.
Not sure if it’s related. I’ve know a few channels that have non-political, but questionable/debatable content, and they have absolutely nothing but praises in comments. My bet is that they are using mod tools to delete/hide everything else, probably automatically.
Theres one channel I wont name (because i cant remember what it is actually) but its some chick with tourettes who goes into shops and has her boyfriend filming while she just knocks shit over and makes a mess, then carries on when confronted and makes out like the workers there are discriminating against her. I dont doubt she has a problem, but if anyone came into my shop making a mess while someones filming them WTF would anyone do? anyway, the comments were nothing but praise about how ‘brave’ she is and how hard it must be to live like that. I am absolutely sure any comment that points out how rediculous it is and does nothing to forward her cause are removed quickly
Well I’m only talking about political news videos, here. Sorry for not clarifying.
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There is no currently no actual evidence that TikTok is a threat to national security, but consider this:
- TikTok is owned by Chinese company
- All large Chinese companies are required to have Party members in the board, making them defacto state-run
- PR China is currently committing genocide, large-scale espionage, subversion of foreign countries and all sorts of fun stuff associated with authoritarian fascist dictatorships
have you seen what videos are posted there? Fucking social media like this, reddit, twitter, instagram and facebook is a huge issue for everyone 😅
we definitely would be better off without them
Those 3 points sound like a reason to be a threat to national secuirry for any nation that’s not golfing buddies with China.
Still not as bad as American social media.
Are you worried about your rising cost of living, decreasing living standards, wages and the total global catastrophe that is climate change?
Don’t worry about that prole, worry about aliens and tiktok!
Not saying it’s a lie, but sourcing from NYPost is automatically a huge red flag.
I’ll put more stock in this when it’s reported by reputable outlets.
It’s literally linked in the first paragraph.
TikTok has flooded millions of Europeans with ads from Chinese state propaganda outlets on topics like COVID-19 and tourism in the troubled Xinjiang region, according to an analysis of a recent ad library conducted by Forbes.
