Comment by AONomad on 08/04/2020 at 23:53 UTC

58 upvotes, 1 direct replies (showing 1)

View submission: Additional Insight into Secondary Infektion on Reddit

I know China is a touchy subject right now on reddit (and rightfully so, the vast majority of criticism is unsubstantive "China bad!" circlejerk), but I'm curious if you're also investigating Chinese propaganda dis/misinformation actions?

I'm a moderator on r/China (and am pursuing an MA in Asian studies, focusing on populism/nationalsm), we've seen a steady increase in posts from single-purpose agenda accounts.

There's an on-going propaganda war involving multiple factions. We notice and monitor trends, but we don't even try to identify specific people or take actions against them unless they're breaking sub rules. It would lead to a witchhunt if we were to do it with our limited tools, and in any case, people would just make new accounts. But you guys probably have much more powerful monitoring systems available that would let you recognize what's going on. If you're not looking into it already, please do so, as it is probably as pervasive a problem as Russian disinformation.

Major factions whose influence we have noticed on our sub:

• pro-CCP: standard communist party posters, most are probably not paid to post, but some certainly are.
• Overseas Chinese: China's United Front Work Department[1] has spent years mobilizing people of Chinese citizenry and descent outside of China to self-organize and disrupt organizations. They're a separate category from the pro-CCP posters because they tend to have a different narrative approach.
• US alt-right: the most unified and therefore noticeable anti-China rhetoric from the West comes from them. We've noticed a lot of accounts with suspicious behavior (on/off periods of activity, sudden shifts in thematic style, etc.) posting from this category.
• Falun Gong: originally a fairly tame religious group that was expelled from China after peaceful demonstrations, the CCP has framed them as being extremists. Most of their reporting makes outrageous claims with little to no evidence, usually only circumstantial or hearsay if any does exist. Also lots of accounts with suspicious behavior as with the US alt-right spread FLG propaganda. Sometimes there are overlaps.
• pro-HK Independence: likely not paid, but definitely organized and coordinated
• pro-HK Police: possibly paid, often overlaps with pro-CCP faction
• pro-Taiwan Independence: There are some fringe elements that dedicate themselves to reporting everything bad that happens in China and spreading it all over reddit, similar to FLG.

Again, we're not taking action on the basis of spreading propaganda. We do delete/warn/ban for misinformation/disinformation, but only the most blatant cases are obvious to us with our limited tools. I know this probably reads a bit on the tinfoil-hat side, so I'll end by saying that I'm not saying all of the above-named factions are bad per se. Just listing them as neutrally as I can, because they exist and they are active, and you should take pains to become aware of the extent of their activity if you are able.

1: https://www.uscc.gov/sites/default/files/Research/China%27s%20Overseas%20United%20Front%20Work%20-%20Background%20and%20Implications%20for%20US_final_0.pdf

Replies

Comment by worstnerd at 09/04/2020 at 00:30 UTC

43 upvotes, 3 direct replies

Great question and thank you for sharing this! We monitor all types of misinformation on the platform, not just Russian. I'd encourage you to report this type of thing here[1]. As I've mentioned, you all have a much deeper knowledge of your particular community, so this type of work is invaluable.

1: mailto:investigations@reddit.zendesk.com