A US State Department report that accuses the Chinese government of expanding disinformation efforts is “in itself disinformation,” Beijing’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs claimed Saturday.
The ministry shot back after the State Department issued a striking report this week in which it accused the Chinese government of expanding efforts to control information and to disseminate propaganda and disinformation that promotes “digital authoritarianism” in China and around the world.
The US report, issued by the Global Engagement Center on Thursday, alleged that China spends billions of dollars a year on foreign information manipulation and warned that Chinese leader Xi Jinping had “significantly expanded” efforts to “shape the global information environment.”
It also underlined US concerns about China as a main military competitor and key rival in the battle over ideas and global disinformation.
You can always tell where disinformation is coming from when they don’t allow you to talk about whether what they are saying is or isn’t disinformation. And I say this knowing how draconian some moderators have become regarding handling of disinformation because that ends up fostering an environment of disinformation itself, just one that begins growing as a seed from another recess.
The real threat isn’t good faith discourse, it’s the propaganda disinformation factories that try to turn money into a way to subvert societies by twisting and corrupting social media and the people they convince to leave good faith discourse.