Aaron Erlich, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal, said it’s important to make people aware of misleading information online. But he said the wording in the CSIS campaign was “not the most straightforward” and appeared to be an attempt not just to educate but to invoke fear.
Erlich said clumsy messaging can backfire, and he would like to know if the messaging was tested at all to see how it would be received.
Russian disinformation appeals to the older crowd, while Chinese disinformation appeals to the younger crowd what with TikTok and all.
So the Chinese version would be very different as it would be targeted at a different demographic. May not even be an ad campaign at all, could just come in the form of blocking TikTok. Though it could just be in the form of regulating TikTok in some way, there is now precedent for regulating social media.
Outside of TikTok, Chinese disinformation is kinda amateur hour at the moment. I mean just look at hexbear LOL. You think that bullshit is convincing anyone of anything? They lack the sophistication the Russians have developed in the last decade and a half. They seem to go for quantity over quality and that’s not at all effective.
Though they have been a little more successful in simply discouraging discussion on how shitty the CCP is. But that’s more a censorship thing than a disinformation thing. How do you do an ad campaign on that? “Don’t not believe the things you didn’t hear about China.” Doesn’t make a lot of sense.