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libs wouldn't know anything about self censorship I'm sure 😂
and not the redrawing of boundaries of acceptable thought
One of my favorite things about western exposure to Chinese social media is the realization that Chinese netizens aren't smarmy liberals yearning for American flags and apple pie. No they're by and large "tankies" just like us. If anything they're even more likely than us to ridicule and demean western nonsense than we are.
From my limited experience Chinese posters are more powerful than we can ever conceive and I'm all for it
the hero we need
Incredible energy
They keep fucking posting walls of text that say nothing comprehensible when translated. It’s an elite troll
The importance of this moment cannot be overstated. For the first time, millions of ordinary American workers are engaging directly with their Chinese comrades, uncovering the lies fed to them by their ruling class. This awakening is a blow to the imperialist propaganda machine and a step toward proletarian solidarity across borders.
It isn't quite yet in the millions:
https://hexbear.net/comment/5821835
Allowing for a day since the article was published and for Americans already set up on the platform, it's probably around a mil.
700,000 is fucking peanuts lol
Even one million is truly insignificant. There are 10x as many people who lap up US propaganda and would like nothing other than international tensions to flare.
At this point, filter bubbles and algorithms are effectively weapons used to divide and destroy. How the hell are you supposed to change anyone’s worldview/beliefs when new information takes the shape of an endless feedback loop of your preexisting beliefs? They truly construct a false sense of a sedative reality
XHS has something like 300 million users (not sure if that's active users though and how they define it). The incursion by overseas users is a drop in the ocean. For those who remain and are radicalised I'm thankful but yes my expectations are muted.
You can't draw any generalized conclusions about Chinese posters from what you anecdotally see on a social media app. The platforms are developed to curate your personal feed so it's not surprising a tankie will see primarily tankie posts just as it wouldn't be surprising if a lib got the impression that the same app was entirely filled with Chinese libs yearning for apple pie.
The thing is: Douyin and Tiktok were intentionally seperated for their domestic and foreign counterparts, in their own jurisdictions.
However, xiaohongshu, as the article points out, is fully in China's hands of jurisdiction and regulations, so unless they make seperate version for foreigners, OOF, they're not getting a lot of
I'm not on any Chinese social media so I don't have any personal feeds that are generalized. I'm more going off memes and videos off bilibili where there will be long explanations of Marxism with a ton of people in the comments
I run on vibes
I'm saying you can't make a generalized statement like "chinese posters are X" based on what you observe on social media since the social media platforms introduce a selection bias whether you choose to cultivate it or not.
It's kinda weird how very aware everyone was of this on tiktok where we had frequent posts talking about how to cultivate it to be more specifically communist or complaining about being stuck in "niche hobby tiktok" yet on this new app everyone seems to have completely forgotten this and is celebrating that everyone is commie now because that is what they are seeing on rednote.