Chinese propaganda is rampant on the fediverse

[braininabox@lemmy.ml]

Or better yet, to back to Reddit

[braininabox@lemmy.ml]

Unfortunately for you, the modlog is public

[harkmahlberg@kbin.earth]

Even Chinese SA's have access to VPN's, proxies, etc. It's not like they would tie their own hands behind their backs to spread the good word, ya know?

Russia only needed a small number of inroads to influence the 2016 US election, and now? Pff, they hardly need to do anything, we're completely self-sufficient in propagandizing ourselves. It's entirely possible China's already created their own army of Overseas Useful Idiots.

[braininabox@lemmy.ml]

Bullshit, hexbear and lemmigrad aren't remotely controlled by the Lemmy devs. Why do you people just lie like this?

[braininabox@lemmy.ml]

You didn't offer a shred of proof for your own claims, you hypocrite.

[braininabox@lemmy.ml]

So no, you have zero evidence

[artyom@piefed.social]

I cited the evidence in the comment you just replied to. Just because you can't be bothered to read it doesn't mean it's not there.

[braininabox@lemmy.ml]

Lol, you literally didn't though. Why lie so obviously?

[amillionmonkeys@lemmy.world]

I still don't understand the point of downvoting here since it doesn't seem to affect visibility. You'll have the dumbest take on something sitting there at -36 and I still have to look at it.

[avidamoeba@lemmy.ca]

🫡 A natural consequence of leftist ideology.

[avidamoeba@lemmy.ca]

It's not even 1 account. It's a collection of sockpuppets. I started noticing them when they started posting in !Canada@lemmy.ca but apparently the streak goes quite further back. The latest ones are Sepia and tardigrade.

I've also suggested changing tactic a bit from being a complete bad-faith asshole to good-faith commenters to at least being nice. Nada.

[avidamoeba@lemmy.ca]

Pretty sure these are all the same person. If you ever engage, you can recognize the same asshole attitude. I've seen multiple of them up/down vote comments where no one else has. Don't think they do that anymore cause it's too obvious.

[realitista@lemmus.org]

Yeah so check it.

[jubilantjaguar@lemmy.world]

Out of interest, how do you know it's sockpuppets?

To be honest I'm genuinely a bit interested in who this might be. I'm imagining a disgruntled Hong Kong exile with too much time on their hands. Also seems likely to be Chinese in that they have a top-down concept of information, not seeing that obvious and relentless propaganda will just backfire with a sophisticated and relatively informed audience. Perhaps I'm being slightly optimistic, but I can't see how they've convinced anyone here that "China bad" who didn't already think that.

[diva@lemmy.ml]

You were temp banned, usually those are for a few days for the person to cool down. The removed comment was part of a chain advocating for the collective punishment of russian civilians

[jubilantjaguar@lemmy.world]

This seems right. Personally I'm not sure I could roll my eyes harder at the fact that so many people in 2026 are so ignorant as to be prepared to call themselves "communists" - after all the famines, the purges, the 40 years in which much of Europe was struggling to escape (literally) from communism... And then I saw that you, too, call yourself a communist! So I guess I'll stop there.

Except to recommend you the Ones and Tooze podcast, in which the brilliant host (an ex-communist) recently did a whole series, in great and illuminating detail, on the various communist thinkers. Which I listened to... dutifully.

[avidamoeba@lemmy.ca]

What I've noticed:

• The posts themselves follow almost identical structure. Large quotes with poster emphasis.
• The posting topics is almost identical.
• The reliability of sources is hit-or-miss on all posts. Some are from legit sources, some are from really questionable ones. The questionable ones are common between accounts.
• The communities where they're all active are the same. Lately there's a bit more separation where some accounts frequent some communities more than others. E.g. some time ago we used to get Hotznplotzn, randomname and Scotty in !Canada. Now we mostly get Scotty.
• When you engage in conversation the lang expression, attitude and arguments are identical. This when I really noticed the pattern.
• I've had multiple accounts from this set group up/down vote their/mine comments, deep into a discussion that didn't attract other up/down votes.
• I've had a discussion that reached a dead end with one account, only for another to show up and restart it from a different angle attempting to reach a different conclusion. E.g. first discuss an economic side of some China-related issue, reach a dead end, restart with human rights abuses side on the same topic. That's while having the group up/down voting action going on.
• Two of the accounts were created on the same date, on two different instances, a few minutes away from each other. This was the smoking gun for me that this is the same person.

Some of these aren't damning on their own, but put altogether make me believe it's one person. Also they never deny that when pressed. The conversation just stops and they disappear for a day or two until the next post.

a disgruntled Hong Kong exile with too much time on their hands

Quite possibly. I think they may live in Germany or be German because I've seen some activity in German. Who knows. I doubt they're a paid actor because there's enough money in the official media machine pushing this line so I think you're right. Someone who really hates China/CCP/CPC, perhaps for a good reason of their own, with a lot of free time. It really sucks because there are really interesting discussions that can be had on any of these topics. There's another guy around here whose family emigrated from China because they weren't having a great time with the 1-child policy among other things. He's in the US and can have rational and interesting discussion about this stuff without bursting in flames.

E: Here's a recent unhinged discussion with Scotty.

[cowbee@lemmy.ml]

Communists govern the largest economy in the world by PPP, and capitalism is falling apart at the seams as the spoils of imperialism are beginning to be cut off. The global south is escaping underdevelopment, and this is forcing austerity in the west, explaining the surge to the right. In the US Empire, communists are more and more common than ever before:

Famine was ended by communists in Russia, China, Vietnam, Cuba, etc. These areas had woefully inefficient systems of agriculture, such as the kulak system, which served to enrich one group of people over the laborers they employed. Collectivization combined with industrialization is why food security was achieved after the introduction of socialism to these countries, and the famines commonly attributed by western historians to communism were the last of a long line of regular famines.

Similarly, purges in the largest majority of cases meant expulsion from the party or position, not execution, except in times of crisis, like the 1930s when fascism was on the rise. They were not done arbitrarily, but as a response to corruption, subterfuge, and sabotage.

It's also a bit silly to suggest that people spent "40 years trying to escape communism." Right up to the end, the majority of people in the USSR wished to retain both the USSR and the system of socialism. This is proven not just from eyewitness reports of support, but also vote totals:

Moreover, after the fall of socialism in Europe, the majority of people want it back or say they are worse off. This is compounded by the fact that over 90% of the Chinese population supports their government and system. Socialist countries run by communists have higher approval rates than capitalist states.

Looking at Adam Tooze, I don't see much indicating him as a former communist. He grew up in West Germany in the height of the Cold War, is trained in liberal economics such as Keynesian economics, though his grandfather was allegedly a soviet recruiter, which is cool. I'm not really convinced I could find much out of his mini-series on Luxemburg, Trotsky, Stalin, or Lenin, considering I've already read works both by them and about them in greater detail than a podcast is going to cover.

[artyom@piefed.social]

That's a great question, why?

[friendofdesoto@startrek.website]

You are your own algorithm. If you see a lot of propaganda or whatever, it's because you chose that content at one point or another. And you can just as easily stop seeing it by unfollowing and blocking.

Also, evidence. I see no signs of rampant propaganda on the fediverse, not on Lemmy or on Mastodon. Now, that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. But that's where you should provide examples so I can check for myself.