Facebook said Tuesday it has identified a sprawling online propaganda effort: a pro-China campaign that had a presence on more than 50 websites.

The campaign “appears to be the largest known cross-platform covert influence operation in the world,” Meta said in a report. The researchers said the broadly coordinated postings of pro-China images, videos, comments and audio files were part of a yearslong operation that researchers had previously dubbed “Spamouflage.”

The findings underscore the potential for internet propaganda campaigns to attempt to exploit internet platforms to influence the U.S. election in 2024. Since 2016, Russia, Iran and to a lesser extent China have all launched covert online efforts to influence U.S. voters.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Not here though. Much like glorious leader Xi Jinping, Lemmy is free from corruption and beautiful like cherry blossom in the wind.

  • Prandom_returns@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Propaganda pushers are the absolute fucking bottomfeeders of the lowest lows.

    If your job is purposely, wittingly mislead people, you’re a fucking waste of blood and organs.

    • Zaktor@sopuli.xyz
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      1 year ago

      If your job is purposely, wittingly mislead people, you’re a fucking waste of blood and organs.

      Not to in any way minimize the evils of propagandists, as they’re pushing much more damaging messages, but that describes most of the advertising industry. It’s just that those liars and manipulators are doing it for a brand so people waste money rather than a political cause.

      It’s kind of crazy that we just tolerate an entire massive industry that adds nothing to the world and is based around misleading people. And it’s a business run out of fancy glass buildings out in the open rather than hidden away.

      • Cleverdawny@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        It’s one thing to be paid to extol the virtues of X Y or Z product and entirely another to illegally influence public opinion in another country for political purposes using lies, deceptions, and half truths.

        • Zaktor@sopuli.xyz
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          1 year ago

          It’s really not. Both are “lies, deceptions, and half truths” and neither is “illegal”, just unethical. Propaganda is worse because of the goals, not because it’s clearly separate endeavor.

          • Cleverdawny@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            If you lie in an advertisement, your company is exposed to consumer protection liability

            • Zaktor@sopuli.xyz
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              1 year ago

              What counts as a “lie” in advertising is incredibly narrow and if that’s your bar almost none of the highlighted Chinese propaganda meets it.

              Advertising is an inherently deceptive business. Products aren’t really “#1”, the podcaster or celebrity spokesperson almost certainly doesn’t mean the words they’re speaking, and those claims about “limited lifetime warranties” are intended to imply good lifetime support when the limits are commonly everything that might go wrong after it leaves the assembly line. These lies and deceptions are so routine we think they’re harmless because we’re conditioned to think lying is just a regular part of business and anyone who actually believes an advertisement is a fool.

    • HakFoo@lemmy.sdf.org
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      Honestly, I feel like propaganda at least aims a bit higher than typical marketing. You’re trying for grand aims of state and party, not trying to convince people to stew their livers in Bud instead of Coors.

      • Zaktor@sopuli.xyz
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        1 year ago

        What a pathetic attempt at misdirection, not the least because the Great Wall doesn’t appear in either this article or the Facebook report.

  • PeleSpirit@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    They “discovered”, lol. Do you mean that China stopped paying because Facebook isn’t where it’s at anymore?

    • Roboticide@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Lol, right?

      But actually probably not because it’s just taken for granted tankies are here and they actually have to “work” to “infiltrate” places like Facebook and Reddit.

      • socsa@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        They aren’t even good at it. Their entire schtick is literally “you are obviously biased because you haven’t read enough Lenin”, like it’s this big gotcha.

      • teft@startrek.website
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        1 year ago

        Reading the article it seems like the whole operation was super obvious and a bit amateurish. Par for the course.

    • Alteon@lemmy.world
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      Yeah, motherfuckers over at lemmygrad are astroturfing HARD. It’s like the Russia/China circlejerk over there. The “greatest socialist experiment of all time”. Smfh.

  • Roundcat@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Hey ya’ll, I know some of you are here on lemmy, and I let me just say…

    Ya’ll doing alright? I’ve read recently about a lot of flooding in Hubei and Jingxi provinces, and despite how I may feel about the CCP and all, I want to make sure ya’ll are good.

  • sendmestuff@feddit.nl
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    1 year ago

    Fuck the people whose work is to push government propaganda. Being a prostitute is more honest than that. You are doing humanity a disservice.

    • local_taxi_fix@lemmy.one
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      The prostitution comparison is completely out of left field. You’re implying that sex workers are dishonest, which I don’t see at all. The proposition of a sex worker is very upfront.

      Lawyer, salesman, CEO, politician, or advertising exec would all be way better examples of dishonest professions.

      • sendmestuff@feddit.nl
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        You are all right. My comparison was quite unfortunate. I wanted to compare with something that some ppl tipically think its less honest. But i agree, i think prostitution/sex work is an honest field of work, much more honest than being a banker, politician nowadays.

    • GBU_28@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      What’s at all dishonest about sex work?

      You’re literally showing your client your butthole, no secrets there

  • treefrog@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    This is going to get easier and easier for states to do as AI becomes more common.

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    These headlines… These articles…

    Of course it’s happening. Who didn’t think it was happening.

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    I see this shit even on relatively small platforms. China and Russia have always been politically fraught. You think people would know that by now. I’ve seen more than my fair share of tankies waving pro china/Russia symbols around with LGBT and black power content, and I ask them if they actually know what they’ve done to groups like that in their own countries, lol.

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    1 year ago

    i have recently seen quite a few articles such as these, denouncing pro-china propaganda, but I feel like it is foolish to think that china is any worse in that regard than our own countries (western perspective).

    I feel articles like this one, only foment anti-chinese sentiment, in favour of just another world power.

    • ikidd@lemmy.world
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      It’s like something happened in 1989, not sure what, can’t put my finger on it…

  • ristoril_zip@lemmy.zip
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    1 year ago

    President Xi is so smart and able to think many steps ahead.

    Our leaders in corrupt so called democracies should take note.

    Overall, it’s a breath of fresh air to hear the truth.

    He is truly a once in a lifetime leader.