U.S. business leaders warn that if social media giants bend to money, the flow of information in a democratic society will pay a huge price.
The “Xinjiang cotton” incident has attracted international attention, but the Chinese Communist Party has recently made a big push to clear its name through Facebook, YouTube and other platforms. U.S. business leaders warned that economic dealings with China are like a flytrap, “once you get in, it’s hard to get out” and that if social media giants succumb to money, “it will cost the flow of information in a democratic society”; some experts even said that some social media have been reduced to “Some experts even say that some social media have been reduced to “CCP fifth columnist collaborators.
According to the Voice of America (VOA) Chinese website, PeterThiel, a U.S. venture capital celebrity and Facebook board member, said at a web forum hosted by the Richard NixonFoundation on June 6 that he had communicated with Google’s (Google) artificial intelligence team, only to find that the Google team had no idea whether its technology was being used in labor camps in Xinjiang, and never asked questions.
Till said, “They [the Google team] wishfully pretend that everything is fine and that these leaders in technology are actually reduced to being ‘fifth column co-conspirators’ of the Chinese Communist Party.”
U.S. media self-censoring for ad revenue
For his part, Arthur Herman, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, said Russian-created fake news used to have a big impact in the United States. But the Chinese Communist Party is becoming more sophisticated in the way it manipulates information, and in some ways has more influence.
Herman said the media filtering of critical voices against the CCP “will cost us dearly in the years to come.” He cited three recent events in China, including Xinjiang, Hong Kong and the epidemic, as examples that received little coverage in the U.S. mainstream media.
“I don’t think they lack curiosity, but they know that to get to the bottom of these issues would reduce their commercial advertising revenue,” he said, stressing that the media is responsible if you abuse your power to suppress and reduce coverage that is unfavorable to the Chinese Communist Party because of close economic ties to China. “We will pay the price in the years to come.”
According to Herman, these social media and media business dealings with China are like a “flytrap” that looks tempting, with a large market and many opportunities to participate. But “once you’re in, it’s hard to get out,” especially for the media. “If the U.S. media had extensive financial dealings with the Soviet Union or its enterprises during the Cold War, it would have been very difficult for the U.S. to get real information about the Soviet Union.”
Facebook employees worry about falling into the Chinese Communist Party’s whitewashing propaganda platform
Not only that, but even Facebook employees are worried about becoming a propaganda machine for the Chinese Communist Party. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that some Facebook employees have expressed concern in internal messages and discussions that Facebook is being used as a conduit for Chinese state propaganda and objected to the company allowing the Chinese Communist Party to whitewash “Happy Uyghurs” on the platform.
The report also mentioned that in response, Facebook executives are watching how international organizations such as the United Nations respond to the Xinjiang issue. The United Nations has called on companies doing business with Xinjiang to conduct in-depth human rights investigations into their operations.
Australian think tank: China’s use of social media to spread fake news has increased dramatically
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (Australian Strategic Policy Institute) International Network Policy Center has also released a report showing that since early 2020, the Chinese Communist Party and official media have used U.S. social media networks to promote political narratives and a dramatic increase in the number of fake news stories about Xinjiang.
The report also revealed common tactics in which the CCP would use covert and overt accounts to promote political narratives on U.S. social media platforms, including tweets from CCP diplomats, official media social media accounts, and interactions with influential pro-Beijing figures, to amplify misleading narratives and spread disinformation.
Earlier this year, Zhuang Rongwen, vice minister of the CPC Central Propaganda Department and director of the Central Internet Information Office, also emphasized externally that “regardless of the nature of the platform or the form of communication, adherence to the correct political direction, public opinion guidance and value orientation should be given primary importance.”
Call to amend Section 230 to make social media responsible
Some social media companies have taken technical defensive measures in the face of the Communist Party’s threats. According to Bloomberg, Google and Facebook recently announced that they will fund the construction of a new trans-Pacific submarine cable connecting the U.S. and Singapore to bypass the previous route through the South China Sea, hoping to be alert and away from the CCP through this new method.
Grant Blank, a senior lecturer at Oxford University and a research fellow at the Oxford Institute for the Study of Networks, also said that social media in the United States has a low barrier and a strong influence, “It’s simple and cheap, people can do a lot on social media platforms, and even small organizations can have a huge impact.
Blank noted that Section 230 of the U.S. Communications Decency Act has long provided protection for social media from liability for what users say on their platforms.
Herman said there has been a growing consensus, both among Democrats and Republicans, that it’s time to wake up social media companies to challenge Section 230 and hold social media accountable, “or they won’t even have to be held accountable for false propaganda against foreign governments.”
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