<h1>Red China shadow bans reach into U.S.</h1>

Wuhan virus news 'unreliable'

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WeChat users find texts covertly deleted
as slick agitprop war expands around globe

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Reds stifle business news to lure investors

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Communists silenced Falun Gong radio in D.C.

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Chinese Communists are waging an aggressive campaign to impose communistic controls on social media used by Americans, Canadians and people worldwide, as well as subverting media organizations across the planet, according to a new report from Freedom House.

Coverage of the potential downsides of China’s foreign investments has been stifled in some countries, the report warns.

Since 2017, there has been a "dramatic expansion" of Red media influence methods via global censorship, propaganda and control over media content, according to the report, Beijing's Global Megaphone: The Expansion of Chinese Communist Party Media Influence since 2017 by Sarah Cook, a senior Freedom House researcher.

Freedom House report on China's info war
https://freedomhouse.org/report/special-reports/beijings-global-megaphone-china-communist-party-media-influence-abroad

In a related matter, Cook told Jan Jekielek, host of American Thought Leaders that Wuhan virus news is so tightly controlled by the Communists that it is difficult to tell what is going on, but conjectured that the outbreak death toll is an "underestimate." Information over social media is filtered by the Reds, she noted.

Sarah Cook exposes Red tentacles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGPQYfz3BlA

In the past three years, the Freedom House report says, the Reds have adopted new tactics, including "Russian-style disinformation campaigns on global social media, harassment of local mainstream media, politicized content manipulation on Chinese-owned platforms, and more explicit efforts to present China as a model for other countries." The war to gain control of world public opinion is complex and sophisticated, according to the report.

Cook wrote that the Communist Party propaganda campaign has been "remarkably effective" at improving China’s image in key regions, though a backlash is underway.

In the United States, Chinese Americans have reported "censorship of WeChat posts in group conversations about local political issues, or had their accounts shut down after commenting about democratic parties’ victory in Hong Kong’s district council elections in November 2019.[160] Across the border in Canada, WeChat censors "deleted a member of Parliament’s message to constituents praising Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement protesters, manipulated dissemination of news reports related to Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou’s arrest, and blocked broader media coverage of Chinese government corruption and leading Chinese officials." Further, there is "evidence that WeChat is systematically monitoring conversations of users outside China and flagging politically sensitive content for some form of scrutiny, even when transmission of the messages is not hindered. In April 2019, researcher Victor Gevers of the GDI Foundation revealed that WeChat was filtering billions of messages for 'review' based on keyword triggers, including dialogues involving users located outside China."

Cook told Jekielek that Gevers is a "brilliant" hacker.

The China-based Tik Tok entertainment app has also been caught censoring content outside China. Tik Tok was forced to revise its pro-Red policy after the Guardian printed internal documents outlining the policy. Taking a cue from FaceBook,  YouTube and Twitter, Tik Tok then ordered a halt to outright censorship, but required that materials that would irk the Reds be downplayed in feeds, according to reports.

China's top leader, Xi Jinping, is the driving force behind the information war. Cook quotes Xi's 2016 declaration: "Wherever the readers are, wherever the viewers are, that is where propaganda reports must extend their tentacles."

Cook relates:

¶ A widely used digital television service in Kenya includes Chinese state television in its most affordable package while omitting international news outlets.

¶ Portuguese television launches a prime-time “China Hour” featuring content from Chinese state media.

¶ Chinese diplomats intimidate a cable executive in Washington, D.C., to keep New Tang Dynasty Television (NTDTV), a station founded by Chinese Americans who practice Falun Gong, off the air.

¶ A partly Chinese-owned South African newspaper abruptly ends a writer’s column after he discusses repression in China’s Xinjiang region.

These examples, which have come to light over the past three years, show how Chinese Red media influence—"in the form of censorship, propaganda, and control over content-delivery systems"—extends beyond the borders of mainland China to reach countries and audiences around the globe.

Cook highlighted new developments in Beijing's information war:

¶ Russian-style social media disinformation campaigns and efforts to manipulate search results on global online platforms have been attributed to China-based perpetrators.

¶ Tactics that were once used primarily to co-opt Chinese diaspora media and suppress critical coverage in overseas Chinese-language publications are now being applied—with some effect—to local mainstream media in various countries.

¶ Beijing is gaining influence over crucial parts of some countries’ information infrastructure, as Chinese technology firms with close ties to the CCP build or acquire content-dissemination platforms used by tens of millions of foreign news consumers.

¶ There is evidence that Chinese-owned social media platforms and digital television providers in multiple regions have engaged in politicized content manipulation to favor pro-Beijing narratives.

¶ Chinese officials are making a more explicit effort to present China as a model for other countries, and they are taking concrete steps to encourage emulation through trainings for foreign personnel and technology transfers to foreign state-owned media outlets.

The report warns

The CCP’s [Chinese Communist Party's] efforts have had a clear impact on the ground. China’s image and Xi’s own profile have improved in key parts of the world. Coverage of the potential downsides of China’s foreign investments has been stifled in some countries. And Chinese state media content reaches hundreds of millions of television viewers, radio listeners, and social media users abroad, in many cases without transparency as to its origins.

At the same time, ongoing efforts to co-opt or marginalize independent Chinese diaspora news outlets and censor critical views on Chinese-owned social media platforms like Tencent’s WeChat have reduced overseas Chinese audiences’ access to unbiased information about events in China, their home countries’ relationship with Beijing, and other topics of relevance to their day-to-day lives. More broadly, many of the tactics that the CCP employs to influence media around the world also serve to undermine international norms and fundamental features of democratic governance, including transparency, the rule of law, and fair competition.