{"id":223399,"date":"2020-08-14T13:16:28","date_gmt":"2020-08-14T20:16:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?p=223399"},"modified":"2020-08-18T18:39:54","modified_gmt":"2020-08-19T01:39:54","slug":"pass-down-red-genes-images-of-bytedance-party-building-activities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2020\/08\/pass-down-red-genes-images-of-bytedance-party-building-activities\/","title":{"rendered":"“Pass Down Red Genes”: Images of ByteDance Party-building Activities"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just as the U.S. announced its “Clean Network” initiative<\/a> and set a deadline for the video-sharing app TikTok to be bought by an American company or banned from the country, images, and screenshots have been circulating in China evincing TikTok parent company ByteDance’s coziness with the Chinese Communist Party. CDT Chinese editors have collected examples<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>showing the ByteDance corporate Party Committee’s engagement in campaigns to “Pass Down Red Genes, Use Tech to Boost Patriotic Spirit\u201d and\u00a0<\/em>“Find Descendants of Revolutionary Martyrs\u201d:<\/p>\n

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\u201cByteDance Party Committee: Pass Down Red Genes, Use Tech to Boost Patriotic Spirit.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cByteDance Party Committee Launches \u2018Red Blood\u2019 Charity Campaign to \u2018Find Descendants of Revolutionary Martyrs\u2019.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

ByteDance has been notably zealous in its efforts to appease the authorities after repeated run-ins in the past. In late 2017, the company ran into trouble<\/a> with its news app Jinri Toutiao (\u201cToday\u2019s Headlines\u201d), perturbing regional newspapers for sharing their content for free, and the Beijing internet regulators for \u201cspreading pornographic and vulgar information<\/a>.\u201d Freedom House\u2019s China Media Bulletin summarized the dust-up in its 2017 year in review<\/a><\/strong>:<\/p>\n

While news content producers struggle, the news aggregation app Jinri Toutiao has enjoyed explosive growth. The app added 40 million users in 2017, bringing its total to 120 million. Parent company Beijing ByteDance is currently valued at $20 billion. Jinri Toutiao is not a journalistic enterprise: Run by well-remunerated engineers<\/a>, it reposts content from other media outlets and provides a platform for bloggers to share and monetize their posts, using algorithms to tailor users\u2019 feeds to their interests and often placing a slice of state-sanctioned news at the top of a large helping of fluff. But with success comes trouble. The company faces lawsuits from several online outlets and provincial newspapers, which claim that Jinri Toutiao has no right to share their content for free. Moreover, the government has chastised ByteDance on several occasions for sharing illegal content. Jinri Toutiao and similar apps are required to use a \u201csuper algorithm<\/a>\u201d to put stories about President Xi Jinping at the top of everyone\u2019s feed and include \u201cNew Era<\/a>\u201d\u2014Xi\u2019s latest propaganda theme\u2014as a news section, says [journalist and scholar] Fang Kecheng. [Source<\/a><\/strong>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Jinri Toutiao quickly fell in line, removing fluff pieces, shutting down over 1,000 user accounts for sharing content that \u201cmay violate regulations,\u201d and \u201cupdating\u201d the app with a new focus on Xi Jinping\u2019s \u201cNew Era.\u201d<\/a> In January 2018, the app started recruitment for 2,000 human censors<\/a>. ByteDance got slammed again when its meme-sharing app Neihan Duanzi was shuttered in April 2018<\/a>, further accelerating the company\u2019s \u201cred\u201d transformation.<\/p>\n

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Plaque certifying ByteDance an “Innovative Brand of Internet Party Building.”<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

ByteDance has taken a new approach to censorship that has allowed it to flourish internationally while still upholding China\u2019s \u201cinternet sovereignty<\/a>.\u201d Unlike Weibo or WeChat, TikTok and its Chinese equivalent, Douyin, are two separate apps<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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One thing that\u2019s been missing in the discussion of TikTok-ban: <\/p>\n

China is actually the 1st country banning TikTok. To use TikTok instead of its CN version Douyin, u need vpn, an overseas App Store account and sometimes a foreign SIM card. Here\u2019s a step-by-step tutorial on Zhihu. pic.twitter.com\/5a36YltwhK<\/a><\/p>\n

— Tony Lin (@tony_zy) August 8, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n