(2020-04-27) Opinion As Chinese Propaganda On Covid-19 Grows, US Social Media Must Act

Vanessa Molter, Renee DiResta, and Alex Stamos - Opinion | As Chinese propaganda on covid-19 grows, U.S. social media must act. According to official infection figures, China’s battle with the novel coronavirus appears to be slowing, though there is skepticism on the reliability of those numbers. But the struggle to control the global narrative is just beginning. A key battlefield in that campaign will be the platforms operated by America’s still-dominant Internet companies.

Our research has demonstrated how Chinese state media use Facebook to shape the discourse on the coronavirus. One example is the case of late whistleblower doctor Li Wenliang, who was one of the first to report the existence of the novel disease and was forced by Chinese police to sign a letter stating that he’d made “false comments.” Li died of covid-19 on Feb. 7, resulting in significant public anger. Forced to strike a delicate balance between covering his story and casting the Chinese government in a positive light, Chinese state media eliminated all mention of the whistleblower controversy and his detention, instead framing him as a hero of the party.

To promote such revisionist histories, these outlets are running ads (advertising) on U.S. tech platforms — platforms that themselves are blocked inside of China. Running ads on Western platforms targeted at non-Chinese audiences is a strategy China has leveraged for some time.

Platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Google (which owns YouTube) already search for and disable networks of fake accounts run by foreign government-aligned organizations. While such efforts can deal a significant blow to the kinds of activity we saw from Russia in 2016, China’s behavior has demonstrated that the disinformation game is broader than fake social media accounts.

First, these platforms should not allow paid political advertisements from media outlets registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). Twitter has banned all state media ads after Chinese state media ads against the Hong Kong protesters on Twitter caused a backlash. Facebook and YouTube still allow, and financially benefit from, Chinese state media ads on their platforms, even though these outlets are registered under FARA.

Second, platforms should disable the capability for official blue-checked diplomatic or state media accounts to block other accounts. For example, various journalists and academics have reported being blocked by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying on Twitter. Critics should be able to read and respond to content shared by state figures, to provide context for other social media users.

Finally, tech platforms should consider banning state media and government-representative accounts run by countries that block their own citizens from accessing these platforms.