60,000 followers translating Chinese propaganda about the Ukraine War
The Great Translation Movement, a Twitter account, has been translating nationalistic views on chinese-language social media platforms into foreign languages.
The Situation At Hand
Based off of Insider, on Zhihu, China's version of Quora, a user wrote that Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy started last year to mobilize troops to the country's border with Russia and began firing across the border. An untrue statement to get Chinese youth believing in Russian sentiments. A user commented that "the ones that understand (Russian President) Putin the most are not Russian youths, but Chinese youths."
These popular posts and comments, written in Chinese, have found a large receptive audience within China's highly-regulated cybersphere, but they are incomprehensible to Western users who don't speak the language, and can't access Chinese internet services.
What's being done about it.
A Twitter account, The Great Translation Movement, is now translating Chinese social media posts into English, Japanese, Korean, French, and Arabic. It's been only three weeks since its first post, but the account today has about 300 posts and more than 60,000 followers. It's also mentioned in Switzerland's paper of record Neue Zürcher Zeitung, and the Chinese versions of Voice of America and DW News.
The account recently translated a poll on youtube on March 31st, of who is to blame for the war and overwhelmingly the highest vote of 1,719 went to the United States being to blame. This is an issue of propaganda in China enveloping the youth.
State-run media have called the tweets a "smear campaign" against the Chinese, since the majority of the account's posts highlight inaccurate information, or China's Russian sympathies.
"What kind of people are behind the 'Great Translation Movement'? Why do they see only hatred and negative messages from Chinese internet in their eyes?" China's state-run paper Global Times wrote last week.
In response, the anonymous owners of the account said they choose to publish the most popular or viral posts or comments to "convey the thoughts of the Chinese masses as precisely as possible." Which has typically lent it's way into being conspiracy theories and fake news.
Does China have a propaganda department?
The publicist department of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party of China also referred to as the propaganda department or central propaganda unit is an inner division of the Chinese Communist Party.
Does China ban freedom of speech?
The government said it was legally entitled to control the content on their Internet, and the government said the censors'rule did not violate the freedom to express their views. The Chinese government has access to uncensored documents through its document management systems.
Does China have freedom of protest?
In China' constitution, citizens enjoy freedom to talk and express their opinions. Press press - Organizers, Associations, processions and demonstrations. However, the practice is strictly prohibited and generally under the supervision.
How do you write propaganda?
Start with an effective introduction, grabbing shoppers attention and linking them to their interests. Develop compelling emotional relationships that form logical relationships that appear weak. Use connections as evidence for supporting implied actions.
What is considered propaganda?
Propaganda is the most effective form of influence or induce an audience to follow an agenda which may be objective and may be selectively presented as evidence of a specific idea or perception.