Yeah, but that appears to be two sides of one coin. A year ago, a researcher from Hong Kong argued in a book that a rise in the number of autocracies “expand Chinese global influence via Belt and Road.” From the excerpt of this book:

When rulers in autocracies with semi-competitive elections […] have a weak hold on power, their desire for Chinese spending is amplified. This relates to clientelism, or the delivery of goods and services in exchange for political support.

A higher level of state control in autocracies grants political leaders greater influence over the allocation of clientelist benefits, which aids leaders’ reelection efforts.

That’s maybe a good example that democracy -not ‘the West’- is China’s real and only enemy.

The linked post in my comment says, among others:

• All 9 Austrian teenagers between 14 and 17 years of age see radical right-wing propaganda, “free home delivered from China,” as the magazine writes.

• The young people see Herbert Kickl, the current leader of the far-right Austrian Freedom Party, the avatar of Jörg Haider, a former right-wing politician who died in a car accident in 2008, and Alice Weidel, the head of the far-right AfD (Alternative for Germany - Alternative for Germany).

• Russian propaganda arises, too, promoting immigration to Russia: “We offer work, a house, a Russian wife and military training,” promises a mock Vladimir Putin to a 15-year-old teenager from Styria, one of Austria’s nine states. Teenagers must apply only at “einbürgerung@kreml.ru”.

• Donald Trump is doing his ‘Trump Dance’, anti-EU propaganda and pro-Islamic propaganda are as widespread as Quran videos, and, of course, there’s no lack of China’s Xi Jinping.

What has that to do with GDPR, Edward Snowden, and the NSA? What you are doing is blatant whataboutism.

Did you even clicked the link? Tiktok appears to be part of the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda machine. With each of your comments you open up just the next round of whataboutism. Tankies are doing tankie things. This is waste of time.

https://beehaw.org/u/InevitableList@beehaw.org

A few days ago I posted an English summary of a German language article about Tiktok in Austria (see this post: https://beehaw.org/post/17463020). There seems to be a clear pattern how Tiktok’s algorithm works, and it’s not good for the users, let alone teenagers.

What else would they say?

A few days ago I posted an English summary of a German language article about Tiktok in Austria (see this post: https://beehaw.org/post/17463020). There seems to be a clear pattern how Tiktok’s algorithm works, and it’s not good for the users, let alone teenagers.

What would be the alternative? One consequence of the so-called ‘multi-polar world’ will be a limited flow of capital between different blocs, limited cross-border investments across multiple industries, which might lead to market fragmentation and a divergence of technical standards. We could see degrees of globalization we had back in the 1990s.

Countries like Russia don’t seem to care about international law (or they care only if it is in their favor). This summer, some officials also discussed the seizure of China-owned infrastructure in Europe regarding Beijing’s support for Russia in its war against Ukraine. Russia and its allies will remain a threat to democracy which is their only real enemy. Russia won’t stop with Ukraine if they get what they want.

So, what’s the alternative?

@Viri4thus@feddit.org

No, Chomsky and Herman don’t apply here, It was Russia that started the war. The aggressor is Putin’s Russia. The “manufactured consent” -if at all- works here only with the tankies and other derailed communities.

[Edit typo.]

This is a good question. There’s is no reason why this -and a lot of other things imho- must be connected.

Amazon is donating $1 million to Trump’s inauguration

Bezos and the company decided on the contribution earlier this week, and communicated it to Trump’s team, according to some of the people. “Bezos is donating through Amazon,” according to a person close to Bezos. Amazon also will stream the inauguration through its Prime Video business, a separate, in-kind donation valued at $1 million, another of the people said.

Seems to be sort of a flat rate.

Yeah, or the West would have reacted accordingly already in 2014.

That’s true. I corrected that now, thanks.

As an addition to the article: Douyin, the Chinese version of the Western TikTok, might work in a different way. As a study regarding visual propaganda of Douyin accounts of Chinese central and local news agencies on China’s Douyin found in May 2024:

The results [of the research] delineate a divergence in focus between central and local news agencies: while the former prioritizes content related to the military, police, and firefighting, the latter emphasizes “livelihood warmth” topics. Central agencies predominantly feature soldiers, police officers, and firefighters, whereas local agencies portray individuals devoid of explicit political affiliations alongside other influencers. Emotional scrutiny unveils a contrast in strategies, with central agencies predominantly evoking emotions such as anger, disgust, fear, and intolerance, while local agencies employ anticipation, acceptance, and respect. This investigation underscores the profound influence of political authority within China’s propaganda framework, shaping both the substance and emotional resonance of political short videos within a hierarchical paradigm […]

Owing to their distinct positions within the hierarchical framework and their varying areas of jurisdiction, local government media at each level exhibit more pronounced hierarchical disparities in their propaganda compared to the central government. In general, the closer the themes and visual characteristics are to “Military, the police, and firefighting”, the less distinguishable they are from central media. Conversely, the more they focus on “People’s livelihood and warmth”, the more likely local governments are to adopt innovative promotional strategies concerning “points” while emphasizing regional characteristics. Although the local news agencies more actively produced content on Douyin than did the central news agencies, the central news agencies received more attention from the public.

That’s fair, it doesn’t make China’s behavior better in any way, though.

Yes, I know of the OMEMO issues. Most users would probably find that too difficult (although it isn’t imo). It’s very hard to convince people of more secure, non-mainstream tools, unfortunately.

XMPP maybe?

I also tink SimpleX Chat is a good alternative.

I wouldn’t recommend Signal (only the client is open source, the server is from Amazon, and you have to provide your phone number).

The European Commission has issued a “retention order” to TikTok under its DSA, ordering the platform to freeze and preserve data related to actual or foreseeable systemic risks its service could pose on electoral processes and civic discourse in the EU “in the context of the ongoing Romanian elections”.

Commission, online platforms and civil society increase monitoring during Romanian elections

TikTok must preserve internal documents and information regarding the design and functioning of its recommender systems, as well as the way it addresses the risk of intentional manipulation through coordinated inauthentic use of the service. The Commission is ordering preservation of documents and information regarding any systematic infringement of TikTok’s terms of service prohibiting the use of monetisation features for the promotion of political content on the service. The retention order concerns national elections in the European Union between 24 November 2024 until 31 March 2025.

Yes, I would also have a nitpick for the authorities (and journalists who report on the issue) in that China didn’t hack the providers, it hacked the U.S. Wiretap system. This is an important detail. There is no such thing as a ‘backdoor only for the good guys’.

India seems more and more following China on the path towards autocrcay.