>The key tactic: networks of websites purporting to be legitimate news outlets, delivering pro-China coverage that often parallels official statements and positions from Beijing.
Reddit?
Banished_Knight_ on
We were worried about AI taking control of infrastructure. We should have been worried about AI spamming and shitposting.
epistemic_epee on
Conspiracy theories about the US, pro-China AI “reporters”, fake experts praising China.
>Shannon Van Sant, an adviser to the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, tracked a network of dozens of sites that posed as news organizations. One site mimicked The New York Times, using a similar font and design in what she called an attempt at legitimacy. The site carried strongly pro-Chinese messages.
>When Van Sant researched the site’s reporters she found no information. Their names didn’t belong to any known journalists working in China, and their photos bore telltale signs of being created with AI.
>[…]
>To tell its story, Beijing has not shied away from using fake personas. A 2023 State Department report detailed the case of a published writer named Yi Fan, originally described as a Chinese foreign ministry analyst. Yi morphed into a journalist, then became an independent analyst.
>Yi’s details changed, but the message did not. Through published commentaries and writings, Yi trumpeted close ties between China and Africa, praised Beijing’s approach to environmental sustainability and argued that China must counter distorted Western narratives.
[…]
>“If you exist, we would like to meet you!” the Swiss Embassy in Beijing wrote on social media.
johnn48 on
I often wonder how gullible Americans are. We seem to invite foreign influence from Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, and at times it seems like anyone with an internet connection. On top of these foreign actors we have Domestic politics and influence that compete to challenge our democracy. Our Founding Fathers were against Democracy because they felt the public was too easily manipulated, so they settled on Representative Democracy. However George Washington in his Farewell Address warned of the dangers of Political Parties.
>”However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.” GW
Additional-Duty-5399 on
What? They’ve been pumping out nothing but ridiculously fake information for almost a century now. It’s just how communists roll. Imagine believing even a single lie their party spews, like “we don’t help Russia militarily”, or “we do not genocide Uyghurs”, or “we don’t harvest organs from political dissidents”, or “we’re the strongest economy”, or “Tibet has been a part of China bla bla bla” and whatever else.
6 Comments
Like fox news and rebel news ? How dare they …
>The key tactic: networks of websites purporting to be legitimate news outlets, delivering pro-China coverage that often parallels official statements and positions from Beijing.
Reddit?
We were worried about AI taking control of infrastructure. We should have been worried about AI spamming and shitposting.
Conspiracy theories about the US, pro-China AI “reporters”, fake experts praising China.
>The Biden administration’s Asia czar woke up one morning in 2022 to a long article in the local press about the [U.S. running chemical and biological labs in Ukraine](https://apnews.com/russias-bioweapon-conspiracy-theory-finds-support-in-us-0f535c2e136cacab85cfd269dc3124f2), a claim that Washington calls an outright lie. [Started by Russia](https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-europe-united-states-nations-biological-weapons-a782591e10eae1530671500710c0b79f), the false and incendiary claim was [vigorously amplified](https://apnews.com/general-news-39eeee023efdf7ea59c4a20b7e018169) by China’s vast overseas propaganda apparatus.
>[…]
>Shannon Van Sant, an adviser to the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, tracked a network of dozens of sites that posed as news organizations. One site mimicked The New York Times, using a similar font and design in what she called an attempt at legitimacy. The site carried strongly pro-Chinese messages.
>When Van Sant researched the site’s reporters she found no information. Their names didn’t belong to any known journalists working in China, and their photos bore telltale signs of being created with AI.
>[…]
>To tell its story, Beijing has not shied away from using fake personas. A 2023 State Department report detailed the case of a published writer named Yi Fan, originally described as a Chinese foreign ministry analyst. Yi morphed into a journalist, then became an independent analyst.
>Yi’s details changed, but the message did not. Through published commentaries and writings, Yi trumpeted close ties between China and Africa, praised Beijing’s approach to environmental sustainability and argued that China must counter distorted Western narratives.
[…]
>Then there was Wilson Edwards, a supposed [Swiss virologist](https://apnews.com/article/europe-science-health-media-coronavirus-pandemic-6101e84e52bda05ede28965a141d66ce) quoted in Chinese media as a COVID-19 expert who criticized the U.S. response. But Swiss officials found no evidence he existed.
>“If you exist, we would like to meet you!” the Swiss Embassy in Beijing wrote on social media.
I often wonder how gullible Americans are. We seem to invite foreign influence from Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, and at times it seems like anyone with an internet connection. On top of these foreign actors we have Domestic politics and influence that compete to challenge our democracy. Our Founding Fathers were against Democracy because they felt the public was too easily manipulated, so they settled on Representative Democracy. However George Washington in his Farewell Address warned of the dangers of Political Parties.
>”However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.” GW
What? They’ve been pumping out nothing but ridiculously fake information for almost a century now. It’s just how communists roll. Imagine believing even a single lie their party spews, like “we don’t help Russia militarily”, or “we do not genocide Uyghurs”, or “we don’t harvest organs from political dissidents”, or “we’re the strongest economy”, or “Tibet has been a part of China bla bla bla” and whatever else.