Protests in China and Elon Musk

World News & Politics Asia
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One thing I’ll raise, that I haven’t seen brought up yet, is that right now the protests in China is setting up a perfect storm of opportunity for the Party in China to utilize whatever “influence” they have over Musk to remove “objectionable” content from Twitter.

For months, many media figures have observed that this opportunity existed… but so far…with protests raging across China…we have seen little from Chinese officials trying utilize that power to control what is on Twitter. And it doesn’t seem to be doing much to stop the outflow (with perhaps the exception of trying to bury it with spam…)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/06/02/musk-twitter-tesla-china-impact

While Musk has said he would have Twitter permit an even wider range of discourse than it does today, the ability of Chinese leaders to affect Musk’s fortunes could embolden them to ask that he identify opposition and American Twitter users, block content the government considers illegal, or at least allow its own propaganda to spread unchecked, these people said.

It doesn’t seem the spam war is working all that well…as plenty of journalist and activist are getting videos out and folks are finding them and sharing them on Twitter…so, all seems normal at the moment… but will be an interesting high stakes test for just how realized those mental models of how the Chinese care about Twitter are…I always kinda felt that many of the concerns fundamentally misunderstood how the Chinese themselves must understand Twitter and it’s value…and how trying to wield that sort of influence might ultimately undermine themselves.

But if we are ever going to see…I imagine we might see it now.

Folks keep asking Musk to do something about Spam, and while I don’t expect him to weigh in explicitly on spam in relation to Chinese protests (unlike how he did in Iran)…it seems likely the spam itself may be dealt with as most spam is eventually. And perhaps that is for the best…although, I guess that depends on what you view is the favored outcome here (ie. bad outcomes for Twitter / Musk…or the Chinese protests not being tainted in the eyes of the Chinese because of meaningless actions or cavalier statements from American observers that can be used to trigger Nationalism among protesting Chinese and pull people back in line).

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I’ve had no issue getting access to content created by Chinese protesters on Twitter.

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Geez! I probably have better information reading the Washington Compost with such speculative gibberish and another opinionated cringe piece that as useful as a whore begging on skid row!

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

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Funny how some think they know Chinese culture or what they think by sitting comfy in their armchairs in some North American basement owned by their grandparents.

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I expect that a big driving force behind these protests is that the Chinese government is quite directly killing its own people for absolutely no benefit the people can see (e.g. not like sending them to fight a war). That is a really good way to destroy trust in the government.

The Chinese, as it happens everywhere, are the victims of their own hubris. So convinced of their own superiority, they just knew they could keep COVID under control when no one else could. Because of that hubris, they cannot admit a mistake, and instead have to keep doubling down. Now they arrived at the point of killing people in the name of saving people, which is a pretty tough pill to swallow.

The World Cup probably made things so much worse, it must have been a shock seeing people go to stadiums when you’re under house arrest and they literally won’t let you out even if the house is on fire.

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The Chinese people have been living under a communist regime for over 70 years, and during that time they have experienced many human rights violations. In recent years, there has been a growing movement of people who are calling for an end to the Communist Party’s rule. These protesters have been met with harsh repression, and many have been jailed or even killed. However, the Chinese people continue to stand up for their rights, and they have made it clear that they are no longer willing to tolerate the abuses of their government. The international community must take notice of these protests and stand in solidarity with the Chinese people who are fighting for their freedom.