TRUMP ON CHINA • PUTTING AMERICA FIRST
On TikTok, a Chinese-owned social media platform with over 40 million American users—probably a lot of your kids and younger colleagues—accounts criticizing Chinese Communist Party policies are routinely removed or deleted.[1]
Last week, Twitter announced the suspension of more than 23,000 Chinese Communist Party linked accounts for spreading propaganda on Hong Kong and COVID-19.[2] This latest suspension was in addition to last August’s removal of more than 150,000 Chinese Communist Party linked accounts that were used to spread anti-American disinformation and generate the illusion of popular support for Beijing’s policies in the United States.[3] These are just the accounts Twitter caught. How many are still out there undetected?
In March, the Chinese Communist Party expelled American journalists working for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post,[4] almost fully eliminating independent reporting from within China on the Wuhan virus.
In addition to influencing what information American citizens receive regarding China, the Chinese Communist Party is increasingly using its leverage to police American speech.[5] When the University of California
- ↑ See, for example, Sara Morrison, “TikTok is Accused of Censoring Anti-Chinese Government Content, Again,” November 27, 2019, https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/11/27/20985795/tiktok-censorship-china-uighur-bytedance, and Drew Harwell and Tony Romm, “TikTok’s Beijing roots fuel censorship suspicion as it builds a huge U.S. audience,” https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/09/15/tiktoks-beijing-roots-fuel-censorship-suspicion-it-builds-huge-us-audience/
- ↑ Twitter Safety, “Disclosing Networks of State-linked Information Operations We’ve Removed,” June 12, 2020, https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2020/information-operations-june-2020.html
- ↑ Twitter Safety, “Information Operations Directed at Hong Kong,” August 19, 2019, https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2019/information_operations_directed_at_Hong_Kong.html
- ↑ Wall Street Journal, “China Banishes U.S. Journalists from Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Washington Post,” March 18, 2020, https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-bans-all-u-s-nationals-working-for-the-wall-street-journal-new-york-times-washington-post-whose-press-credentials-end-in-2020-11584464690
- ↑ Michael Pompeo, “On the Chinese Communist Party’s Obscene Propaganda,” U.S. Department of State, June 6, 2020, https://www.state.gov/on-the-chinese-communist-partys-obscene-propaganda/
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