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Re:China clamping down on coronavirus research, deleted page... by godelski on Sunday April 12, 2020 @07:41PM (#22851875)
I'm not so sure I buy the Reddit controlled by CCP (or heavily influenced) argument. Simply because in /r/China, /r/ChineseLanguage, and /r/HongKong I see frequent posts that are highly critical of the CCP and China in general. They have many upvotes and it doesn't look like people are being banned or posts are being removed. It is nowhere like /r/Sino.

I'm not trying to defend the CCP here, but just trying to say that maybe Reddit isn't a CCP propaganda weapon. I'm sure there's some influence, but I see these arguments go quite far.

Re:China clamping down on coronavirus research, deleted page... by coupdejarnac on Sunday April 12, 2020 @07:56PM (#22851945)
I've seen way more wumao type posts in subs like r/worldnews, where typical readers are much less knowledgeable about China.
Re:China clamping down on coronavirus research, deleted page... by peteretep on Sunday April 12, 2020 @07:48PM (#22851904)
Honestly the much simpler explanation is coordinated voting. If the Donald Trump-related sub-Reddit can coordinate their voting sufficiently that Reddit needs to step in to stop it, then I'm sure a country with access to Project Management tools can get large numbers of state employees or patriots to click on voting buttons.
Re:China clamping down on coronavirus research, deleted page... by dirtyid on Sunday April 12, 2020 @08:02PM (#22851971)
All the anti-China subs has grown multitudes more users than Sino since last year, easily enough to drown out pro-Chinese voices. Statistically, we should see more anti-Chinese bots and manipulation occurring.

Also all available research doesn't suggest CPC has foreign manipulation toolset on western social media, except last years twitter "disclosure" about state level manipulation on HK without any explanation and attribution. Turned out to be ~200 twitter accounts, which... ok could be from Chinese state or bored PRC nationalist script kiddies.

Also 50c doesn't operate abroad, they don't engage in argumentation, only lazy platitudes about positive Chinese news items - they don't draw attention to negative news. All the shill accusations doesn't account for this fact that 50c glorifies instead of defends China. The latter pattern requires too much effort. Official 50c are mostly state employees trying to meet msg quotas on domestic social media. Also China would not waste English proficiency trolling on reddit, English speakers with proficiency to trick western audiences are making bank working in industry and not the state. Chinese foreign propaganda MO is pouring a few hundred billion buying ad space in foreign news papers. And lately they've been growing twitter and other microblogging platform accounts for their diplomats to troll US. See US bioengineered weapon.

E: Just to add the parsimonious explanation about the amount of pro-Chinese perspectives is that the vast amount of Chinese diaspora is engaging online discussions since they are witnessing the effects of western propaganda targetting their country. There is a ridiculous amount of biased reporting out there. Increased sinophobia etc, it's in their interests to clear the air which occasionally leads to doubling down on nationalist rhetoric.