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mzs

Journalist's thread that explains a bit more of how they did this:

https://twitter.com/alisonkilling/status/1298933918620672000

edit: was used in creating this two part story:

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/meghara/china-new-inter...

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China's social media army is out in force on that Twitter thread. Deflect, Deny, Discredit.

It is truly remarkable how many replies in that thread consist of bad analogies, denials of clear third party reporting, and whatabout-ism.

Same thing happens here btw on HN. Since I just said something against HN, I guarantee this comment will get downvoted into oblivion.

yeah i commented about documenting the prc supporters enabling this to happen and I got downvoted and flagged!

It's bad that certain groups (especially that one) will downvote/flag HN comments for political reasons, but I dare say the reason your comment got flagged was because of its emotional/aggressive tone, e.g. "so that each and every one of them can be prosecuted after China loses the third world war".

if we're not allowed to be emotional about genocide, then I'm not sure we are allowed to be human at all.

No one could disagree. My inane comment was just a distraction from the topic, sorry. I really only wanted to say that a sober suggestion could convince more people than a crudely aggressive one. Try again?

Which part did you find aggressive? Prosecuting those responsible for aiding in the genocide of a people?

World war? Indiscriminate ire at Baidu execs?

The horrible reality of humanity is that people follow orders they shouldn't, because you don't want to be the only person to say no, achieving nothing. It goes even further in the Stanford prison experiment. That's why autocratic regimes like Belarus's persist long after everyone knows they have no legitimacy.

Also, (Re: "PRC supporters and enablers") I assume the vast majority of the people working in the Chinese government are decent people and have never had to do anything immoral.

Well then the horrible reality of humanity is that we seek to punish people who play a part in these atrocities in order to seek justice, till we can come up with a better alternative. Otherwise, let's not punish some newbie in a gang who was forced to murder as part of his forced initiation even though he didn't want to.

generally downvoting happens when you talk about voting in the meta, which is against the rules and spirit.

I am very well aware of it and as I was writing it I was concious about the HN FAQ and rules of engagement.

I am deliberately making an exception. Apparently, it didn't get downvoted but I've seen similar comments getting downvoted everytime I saw it without this disclaimer.

I can't talk about why I might have downvoted your comment.

The karma cycle of life. Humourless slashdot 4 eva.

The exact same thing? There's no meaningful difference?

> It is truly remarkable how many replies in that thread consist of bad analogies, denials of clear third party reporting, and whatabout-ism.

Those are the the typical tactics, and they're pretty bad at it, but it must be noted that there are several long-standing wumao accounts on here that will brigade on posts that are deemed to be anti-CCP. The jokes on them, as I couldn't possibly care less about fake internet points, but every time I talk about HK and the CCP its not long before I get into the negatives if the thread/post has high visibility.

I find my posts will dip into the negative territory while the thread is young then slowly creep back up as it ages. Pros know that only the most recent content matters.

That is why USA or the west world is losing if we believed social media has a key role in shaping opinion. You cannot go it and they can come out. And even chinese coming out with their wechat would be closed.

I am not hopeful. Whilst I believe the ccp might go, it is that asymmetric thing which is a problem.

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