this post was submitted on 13 Aug 2025
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Asklemmy
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So this is the lemmy.ml I've heard so much about, huh?
You want me to prove... that China is rich and can afford pretty much everything, including online propaganda...? Hmm, let's see... I guess the fact it's the world's 2nd biggest economy (or 1st if we look at actual productivity and not the USA's heavily inflated GDP) might be a tiny clue.
Would it really be a shock to anyone if a global superpower spread propaganda to be viewed more positively by people around the world? Russia and the USA do it all the time. Why wouldn't China?
I guess people never disagree with you, becuase it looks like it's the first time you've been exposed to an opinion that doesn't align with yours.
No, that's not what I wanted you to prove, try reading again.
I'm not the one accusing everyone who disagrees with me of being secret Chinese agents dog.
hey you notice how at no point did you leave your mind palace?
"Well it's true because I figure it's true and you're stupid if you disagree"
Profoundly unserious.
Completely reasonable.
But this isn't reasonable at all, and it's what you're trying to defend.
Lemmy has no value. It's a waste of resources. Your assertion wasn't that China is has propaganda. I know they do, there are hundreds of officially disclosed initiatives. Your assertion is that Lemmy users aren't genuine.
You also implied that TikTok - A platform globally moderated by the the USA - is a hotbed for PR Chinese propaganda, which isn't reasonable either.
Good point. I completely forgot the scope of OP's question was Lemmy specifically. In that case, I'm not sure whether it's likely that it's a disinformation campaign or not. I certainly hope it isn't.
Isn't it reasonable? There's a lot of both pro- as well as anti-China content on American platforms. I'd think there'd be at least as much pro-China content on a Chinese platform. There does't necessarily have to be more of it. I'd say it's more a matter of young people being vulnerable and TikTok being extremely good at capturing their attention.
There is a lot of Chinese state-sponsored propaganda on TikTok, as well as pro-China speech by unaffiliated users. This is true of TikTok and of YouTube and Twitter. (The state-sponsored propaganda I'm highlighting isn't particularly insidious, it's things like student exchange or paid travel bloggers, Chinese news spending budget to create English language content). But you aren't more likely to come across it on TikTok than western platforms, because China doesn't control the algorithm. TikTok was forked off a Chinese product, but it's controlled by Oracle and the USA in terms of tuning and moderation. The Chinese just collect rent.
Now if your angle isn't that TikTok pushes those things, but just that kids use it and kids are impressionable, then I don't have any objections with what you're saying. I haven't seen any Chinese state-sponsored content that plays well with kids, but I wouldn't expect to either since my recommendation feed looks different (and I don't use TikTok).