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Some thoughts today: China needs to reassess its general communications and public relations strategies concerning the west. This is not the first time I've talked about this, it's a longstanding problem, but there are some big red flags up ahead which are going to cause problems
I read a report yesterday which found the "China state affiliated media" labels on various accounts and the deboosting which comes with it has reduced their traction by 30%. But also, as a byproduct of Trump and Capitol chaos, things are going to get worse not better.
I said a few weeks ago that both the beginning and the end of the Trump administration, his election and his defeat, have produced major turning points in the regulation of big tech in the US.
Firstly, his election led to the Russia narrative which has wiped up widespread fear of "foreign interference" via social media platforms. This created the "state affiliated media" labelling, also a product of events in Hong Kong too, as well as a ban on their advertising
The capitol violence was the second turning point. Although this was aimed at Trump and his enablers, do not assume it won't leave China alone. There is now a widespread push amongst certain blue check voices to try and get Chinese media accounts off twitter.
The other week the Chinese Embassy in the US put out a notorious tweet which received widespread condemnation. Twitter responded to pressure and deleted it. Although the diplomatic consequences mean it cannot ban the embassy (hence US one in Weibo) it's a sign of things to come.
This morning, Gady Epstein (who I might is an advocate of banning Chinese media accounts and called for Zhao Lijian to be banned last year) falsely claimed China is spreading vaccine misinformation in response to Liu Xin quoting reports about Pzifer, and this tweet got traction
Mainstream journalists appear to have calculated that if they put enough pressure on twitter over Chinese accounts they can achieve results, and in this post capitol environment the threshold is much lower. I believe given this, the walls are going to close further.
What constitutes "Misinformation" is subjective, not definitive, and of course the criteria is weighted against China for obvious ideological reasons. Given this and other factors, they need to reassess their entire communications strategy because right now, it's not working.
It's simply too easy and too tempting to dismiss Chinese media as zero-sum propaganda without actually considering the arguments they put forwards, and it isn't resisting the daily bombardment of negative coverage coming from the western media which presents itself as "truth".
But yes Chinese media should prepare for the contigency that the walls are going to continue to close in and their operating space is going to be reduced in a salami slice away, or if there is another major event such as Hong Kong unrest, in a huge turning point.
