Chinese state-controlled media have been publishing undisclosed political ads on Facebook, attempting to pin the blame for the coronavirus on President Donald Trump.
Chinese Media Pushes Propaganda on Facebook
A report from The Telegraph, the British newspaper, revealed the extent to which three Chinese state media outlets, Xinhua, China Central Television and the Global Times, had been pushing Chinese propaganda disguised as political advertisements on Facebook and Instagram.
The articles were pushed in English, Chinese, and Arabic, and were most likely seen hundreds of thousands of times. The ads claim that the Chinese government “has taken stringent and forceful measures, and turned the tide on coronavirus,” with another one blaming President Trump for the severity of the current coronavirus outbreak, arguing that “Trump’s disruption to China has severe consequences.”
Some even suggest the coronavirus actually started in America!
Facebook told the The Telegraph that the ads were misclassified as non-political, and they had corrected the error. However, many of the advertisements also ran in countries where Facebook currently does not have a policy requiring political ads to disclose themselves as such. The spokesperson told The Telegraph that Facebook had plans to institute such a policy worldwide, including requiring the identification of state-controlled media outlets.
Facebook Allowing Propaganda “More Opportunity” To Spread
One potential reason why the Chinese media ads were missed is due to the fact that the company is being forced to rely more heavily on artifical intelligence for moderation during the coronavirus outbreak. Kate Klonick, a law professor from St John’s University in New York City, said that Facebook is “just keeping [its] head above water,” allowing the Chinese media propaganda “more opportunity” to spread unchecked.
“Moderation is sclerotic because they literally are working with 10pc of their human content moderators right now,” Klonick said. “They’ve dismantled their entire appeal system and they’re archiving things for appeal later.”
RELATED: Hawley: China Must Be Investigated for Role in Coronavirus Pandemic
We should, of course, expect nothing less from the communist Chinese government now and their puppets in the “media.” They are hiding everything they can about the coronavirus outbreak, from the true numbers of people infected, to how it started. They must not be allowed to keep getting away with this!