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In the wake of the U.S. Capitol riots, Chinese, Iranian, and Russian state-backed media coverage has focused intensely on social media companies’ response to the attack, Bret Schafer finds in an analysis of Hamilton data. https://securingdemocracy.gmfus.org/censorship-and-the-capitol-riot-how-big-tech-became-the-target-of-russian-chinese-and-iranian-messaging/
Russian state media outlets (esp RT) have leaned into the debate over social media’s role in censoring political speech. While US and int'l media have covered legitimate arguments over the companies’ decision to ban Trump from their platforms, RT’s coverage has differed in 2 ways
First, RT has adopted the language and talking points of partisan right-wing (and, to some degree, left-wing) media personalities, alleging that the moves by the companies reveal their naked political bias as well as their craven pursuit of monopolistic power.
RT has also adopted an almost activist approach to publicizing alternative social media channels. This has been accomplished through extensive coverage and de-facto promotion of Parler, Telegram, and other alternative platforms, which are described as havens of free speech.
For the past several days, RT’s homepage has carried a banner with the hashtag #LeaveTwitterJoinTelegram, directing its readers to “find freedom” by joining RT’s Telegram channel. This overt promotion of one privately-owned company over another is unusual for a media outlet.
Chinese outlets and their influential editors primarily focused on hypocrisy narratives—namely, that protestors in Hong Kong should be treated with the same disdain as rioters in Washington, D.C. This theme also received substantial play among China’s diplomatic corps.
Censorship and Big Tech narratives received substantially less coverage than in Russian circles, and the focus was more on censorship as evidence of the decline of the “U.S. system," as well as efforts to denigrate "U.S. digital hegemony."
Iran’s state media outlets and government officials provided the least amount of coverage of Silicon Valley’s Trump ban, instead focusing, at times gleefully, on the disreputable end to Trump’s presidency and, unrelatedly, the supposed end of liberal democracy.
The coverage that was provided of Big Tech’s crackdown was largely factual and free of editorial spin, with a few notable exceptions. A Fars News article trumpeted Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s claims, which is a recurring theme in Iranian messaging.
While it may seem ironic for media outlets funded by countries that consistently rank among the world’s worst offenders in terms of upholding press and Internet freedoms to launch an anti-censorship crusade, it's not an unusual talking point.
China, for example, is in a pitched battle with the United States to control the Internet. By promoting a narrative that Silicon Valley’s hegemony is a threat to global speech, it can better position its own brands as viable alternatives.
Russia has an economic and geopolitical interest in damaging the fortunes of some of the US’ most profitable companies. But it's perhaps more interested in promoting censorship and political bias narratives as yet another issue that can be used to pit Americans against each other
"Going forward, social media may therefore become not only the staging ground for foreign information operations but also a target of them," Bret Schafer writes. https://securingdemocracy.gmfus.org/censorship-and-the-capitol-riot-how-big-tech-became-the-target-of-russian-chinese-and-iranian-messaging/
