{"id":244620,"date":"2022-11-29T13:14:30","date_gmt":"2022-11-29T21:14:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?p=244620"},"modified":"2023-01-24T16:26:00","modified_gmt":"2023-01-25T00:26:00","slug":"from-spam-bots-to-crowd-shots-authorities-seek-to-distract-amid-anti-lockdown-protests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2022\/11\/from-spam-bots-to-crowd-shots-authorities-seek-to-distract-amid-anti-lockdown-protests\/","title":{"rendered":"From Spam-bots to Crowd Shots, Authorities Seek to Distract Amid Anti-Lockdown Protests"},"content":{"rendered":"

As thousands across China erupted into a weekend of <\/span>nationwide protests following a deadly fire in Urumqi<\/span><\/a>, authorities used various propaganda tactics in traditional and social media to minimize the spread of public discontent and divert attention away from both the protests and other potential fuel for people\u2019s frustrations with pandemic controls.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

State media largely ignored the protests. In Tuesday\u2019s edition of the People\u2019s Daily, there was no mention of the pandemic situation on the front page, but a <\/span>commentary<\/span><\/a> on the second page called for all local governments to \u201cfurther unify their thoughts and actions with the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping\u2019s important instructions\u201d regarding pandemic prevention. In his Tracking People\u2019s Daily newsletter, Manoj Kewalramani interpreted the commentary as \u201c<\/span>demanding flexibility and adaptability from local governments, while calling on them to work as per the prescribed central guidelines<\/span><\/a>. There is clearly a suggestion that local officials should address what might be problems or onerous practices and also control key risks (how should a local official interpret that if there are protests?), but this is not a call for easing the broad policy approach.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On Monday, CCTV showcased one commentator\u2019s description of the pandemic situation: \u201c<\/span>The government and people are as tightly linked and united as one strong rope<\/span><\/a>.\u201d At The Guardian, Jonathan Yerushalmy reported on <\/span>how other state media outlets covered, or ignored, the protests and their context over the weekend<\/strong><\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n

Protests flared across Chinese cities over the weekend, with calls for political freedoms and an end to Covid lockdowns.<\/span><\/p>\n

[…] However, none of that was evident on the front pages of some of the country\u2019s most prominent newspapers, or on broadcast channels on Monday. After a night of unrest, CCTV spent most of the morning covering the announcement of the planned launch of the Shenzhou-15 spacecraft to China\u2019s space station on Tuesday. The English language Global Times\u2019 main headline focused on the weekend\u2019s local elections in Taiwan, while Shanghai media reported on the latest industrial revenue figures.<\/span><\/p>\n

[…] Most of Hong Kong\u2019s mainstream media, normally fast to respond to news on mainland China, meanwhile delayed the reporting of the ubiquitous protests across China by one day and led the stories from the official angle. Most led with the Covid case numbers, or official insistence of the Covid control and played down on the details and colour of the protests themselves. [<\/span>Source<\/strong><\/a>]<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Twitter was another medium where coverage of the protests was distorted. CDT catalogued the ways in which the <\/span>protests were tracked and analyzed on Twitter<\/span><\/a> by various groups in the face of malicious interference and other obstacles. Researchers and journalists noted that a host of Chinese-language bots muddied the waters. Alex Stamos, former Facebook security chief and now director at the Stanford Internet Observatory, said that this activity appeared to be designed to limit international observation of the protests and constituted a <\/span>\u201cmajor failure\u201d by Twitter to limit government interference<\/span><\/a>. Some accounts initially appeared to support protesters but later called on them to stop, prompting suspicions of malicious intent. One of them had amassed over 40 thousand followers after just days of being created. Joseph Menn from The Washington Post first reported on the <\/span>Chinese Twitter accounts that obscured news of the protests<\/strong><\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n

Numerous Chinese-language accounts, some dormant for months or years, came to life early Sunday and started spamming the service with links to escort services and other adult offerings alongside city names.<\/span><\/p>\n

The result: For hours, anyone searching for posts from those cities and using the Chinese names for the locations would see pages and pages of useless tweets instead of information about the daring protests as they escalated to include calls for Communist Party leaders to resign.<\/span><\/p>\n

[…] Sunday\u2019s campaign was \u201canother exhibit where there are now even larger holes to fill,\u201d the ex-employee said. \u201cAll the China influence operations and analysts at Twitter all resigned.\u201d [<\/span>Source<\/strong><\/a>]<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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wtf… I thought this was a genuine account and even recommended following and now it turns out it's a entrapment\/covert op account??! pic.twitter.com\/B2wkgfRZIs<\/a><\/p>\n

— Chenchen Zhang \ud83e\udd26\ud83c\udffb\u200d\u2640\ufe0f (@chenchenzh) November 28, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n