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submitted 1 year ago by L4s@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

TikTok has been pushing Chinese propaganda to millions of users in Europe: analysis::More than 1,000 ads from Chinese state media outlets have run on European users' TikTok feeds since October 2022, according to the platform's latest ad library update that was analyzed by Forbes.

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[-] fubo@lemmy.world 253 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The NYPost (low-quality tabloid) is just echoing an actual article at Forbes, which can also be accessed in archive form here.

In general, when a low-quality tabloid site merely reports on the existence of research done by actual reporters, it's better to follow the links and post the researched article instead of the tabloid one.

[-] mwalimu@baraza.africa 81 points 1 year ago

Spread the gospel! Cite the primary sources as much as possible.

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[-] elkazz@aussie.zone 9 points 1 year ago

NYPost is owned by the same company that owns FOX News.

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[-] Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world 61 points 1 year ago
[-] TimewornTraveler@lemm.ee 58 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Downvote everything from that fuckin rag. Don't post NYPost here. If there's a story, find a news source that doesn't itself have an outrageous history of propagandizing.

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[-] fidodo@lemmy.world 44 points 1 year ago

Breaking news! Chinese company runs ads paid for by Chinese government! Did anyone think otherwise? All governments pay for ads. Who in their right mind would think a Chinese company would refuse their government as an ad customer?

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[-] mayo@lemmy.world 44 points 1 year ago

See that other article on the NYPost next to this one? A guy turned himself into a border collie? He's a dog now and it only cost $20,000.

Great news source. No problems here. Not click bait garbage at all. Nope, not meant for maximum sharing. Thanks L4sBot for your contribution.

[-] match@pawb.social 12 points 1 year ago

$20,000 to become your fursona would be a fucking steal to most furries, they would sell everything for that.

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[-] QubaXR@lemmy.world 38 points 1 year ago

TikTok is garbage, but perhaps we should look at all the ridiculous right wing propaganda pushed by YouTube, Facebook and Twicough X

[-] Tesco@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago

YouTube is absolutely dreadful for it. I have literally zero interest in American politics, I'm interested in world events but frankly couldn't care less about another country's domestic politics yet it's pushed almost every time I load the site.

I mostly watch things like travel vlogs and trip reports, yet get endless spam about right wing American politics. There's nothing in my search history that would suggest I'd care about it.

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[-] minkshaman@lemmy.perthchat.org 8 points 1 year ago

Exactly. It’s all propaganda, and to say “oh well Facebook is ok, so why pick on TikTok” is the hottest of takes.

They’re all garbage and we should ban all of them.

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[-] MaxPower@feddit.de 37 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yeah well Orwell's 1984 was way off then. The government does not even have to force people to install devices in their homes that blare government propaganda 24/7. They are doing it willingly, enthusiastiacally even, and they don't even have to be citizens of that government lol

Who would have thought?

[-] jerkface@lemmy.ca 20 points 1 year ago

Who would have thought?

Aldus Huxley?

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[-] rm_dash_r_star@lemm.ee 30 points 1 year ago

Propaganda is alive and well in the USA too, especially if you consider it in the most liberal sense.

There's an incredible amount of advertising in the media telling me what I need to think about any issue you can imagine. Most people just ignore it, but it annoys the crap out of me. I'll make up own damn mind, thank you.

This is a modern development, you never saw that crap forty years ago. I'm old enough to remember the before time. Most of it I can avoid simply by not watching commercial TV and blocking ads on the internet. Though sometimes it squeaks through on the TV and it makes me want to throw a chair at it.

When I do have the misfortune of seeing that garbage it's usually on TV and has an Ad Council logo on it. Who are these people and how are they able to egregiously spend the large amounts of money it takes to repeat ads on TV like that. That's a lot of money consumed in a futile attempt to brainwash me through repetition.

They could take that same ad money and actually use it to provide relief for some important social issues, like starving children. Instead they'd rather use it to try and influence my opinion in a futile way. Man that is really fucked up when you think about it.

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[-] thriveth@lemmy.world 24 points 1 year ago

Oh no, they are polluting our own US and European propaganda.

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[-] ghariksforge@lemmy.world 21 points 1 year ago

And American social media does the same for America. Every dog barks for its master.

[-] outdated_belated@lemmy.sdf.org 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Moreover, how is anyone sitting in America (or a country with American bases) primarily concerned about the Chinese government? We have endless military and culture war/ propaganda barriers erected against them; we're basically untouchable, unless we plan on physically going to China.

(The answer is related to the propaganda barriers themselves -- it's acceptable / encouraged to criticize China).

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[-] ABC123itsEASY@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago

You're not necessarily wrong in all respects, but this comment is peak whataboutism. Western tiktok is targeted mostly at children and young adults who are obviously highly impressionable, so I would argue that regardless of whats happening on any other social media platform, this is unwanted and harmful and therefore shouldn't be accepted.

[-] charles@lemmy.world 22 points 1 year ago

The difference is there is American federal policy being put in place around TikTok specifically that is not being done against other social media apps.

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[-] ghariksforge@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago

Whataboutism is the correct and logical answer to hypocrites. There is nothing that Tiktok is guilty of that Twitter or Instagram aren't.

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[-] Doug@midwest.social 14 points 1 year ago

Are children and young adults really more impressionable than Fox news, and thereby Facebook's, audience?

I also don't know that I agree with "targeted mostly at children and young adults". There are very large parts of TikTok that would be wholly unappealing to your average kid. Not to mention that American social media started out very much targeted at children and young adults. Or have we already forgotten what the main demographics of Facebook and myspace used to be?

The problem with whataboutism here is that these conversations pretty much always involve TikTok and rarely other platforms until it's brought up in comments where it can be dismissed as whataboutism.

Either they're all a problem (it's this one) or none of them are. We need to stop drawing arbitrary lines between offenders. It's just giving a bunch of shit bags freedom to continue being shit bags.

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[-] fidodo@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

Facebook ran ads paid for by Russian propagandists which IMO is far worse than a Chinese company running Chinese ads.

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[-] nxfsi@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago

There is no currently no actual evidence that TikTok is a threat to national security, but consider this:

  1. TikTok is owned by Chinese company
  2. All large Chinese companies are required to have Party members in the board, making them defacto state-run
  3. PR China is currently committing genocide, large-scale espionage, subversion of foreign countries and all sorts of fun stuff associated with authoritarian fascist dictatorships
[-] avater@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

have you seen what videos are posted there? Fucking social media like this, reddit, twitter, instagram and facebook is a huge issue for everyone 😅

we definitely would be better off without them

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[-] Lenins2ndCat@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Are you worried about your rising cost of living, decreasing living standards, wages and the total global catastrophe that is climate change?

Don't worry about that prole, worry about aliens and tiktok!

[-] HurlingDurling@lemm.ee 14 points 1 year ago

"I cannot belive it!" - said no one ever

[-] drewofdoom@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago

Not saying it's a lie, but sourcing from NYPost is automatically a huge red flag.

I'll put more stock in this when it's reported by reputable outlets.

[-] nuke@yah.lol 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It's literally linked in the first paragraph.

TikTok has flooded millions of Europeans with ads from Chinese state propaganda outlets on topics like COVID-19 and tourism in the troubled Xinjiang region, according to an analysis of a recent ad library conducted by Forbes.

[-] tillimarleen@feddit.de 10 points 1 year ago

From the original story in Forbes: „Both Meta and Google label content posted by state media outlets, and in January, TikTok announced that it would join them in doing so. (Twitter formerly labeled posts by state media outlets, but discontinued the labels under Elon Musk.)“

[-] realz@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago

Isn’t that what Hollywood did for America and democratic values?

[-] forrcaho@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

Yeah, yeah, it's Chinese government propaganda, but isn't all advertisement basically propaganda? "Everything is rosy in Xinjiang" is a harmful lie, but so is "if you buy a big-ass truck you'll be a manly man" and frankly I think the latter is causing a lot more damage because it's one that people act on.

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this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2023
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